Life Beyond the Land of Whirlpools
by naruhina-namikaze
Summary: During a crucial mission to thwart the advance of Uchiha Madara's army into Hi no Kuni , Sixth Division Taichou Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto unearths a relic of the past, a discovery that will change the shape of the Elmental World forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note to any who are interested:** Hey guy's, Naruhina-Namikaze here...obviously.

It turns out I'm terribly inadequate at posting regular chapters, and I get new ideas all the time. Too much in my head, some of it needs to come out, hence why this has been written. It's a lot longer than my usual chapters, but I wrote more because I don't know whether I'll continue so I thought you'd all get your imaginary money's worth.

I honestly don't know how this will be perceived, and/or if I will actually continue it, but it's been in my head for a while now and I wanted to put it into writing. So yeah, without further delay, I present to you: Life beyond the Land of Whirlpools.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or Stargate. Fuck me I wish I did, but I don't. Sad times. Think of the wonga. *sigh*

**Crossover type:** Naruto X Stargate: SG-1

**Title: **Life beyond the Land of Whirlpools - (Title is a work in progress. If anyone can offer me a better one then go for it and I might use it, providing I like it of course.)

**Rating: M**. Just to be safe. I don't know how gory / sexualised I'm thinking of making this. I do like my naughty words though, so that's a cert.

**Summary: **Sixth Division Taichou Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto liked nothing more than for a mission to run smoothly. His orders were difficult, but straightforward: "Lead 'Alpha Squadron' through the barren wasteland of Uzushiogakureto thwart the advance of Madara's army into Hi no Kuni, following the collapse of Kirigakure." No matter how much he liked things to go to plan, something _always _went wrong. How will he and his team cope when they stumble upon the _real _reason behind the name of the 'Land of Whirlpools'?

* * *

+'Shinobi' Identification Certificate +

Name: Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto

Codename: 'Zero'

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Height: 6'1in

Rank/Title: Tokubetsu Jounin / ANBU Taichou / Sennin

Affiliation: _Konohagakure no Sato_

_Allied Shinobi Forces: Infantry Division_

_Sixth Division Spec. Ops._

_Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (ANBU)_

_Alpha Squadron__Uzumaki Clan_

_Namikaze Clan_

_Mount Myobaku _

* * *

Chapter 1 – Insignificance

For four long years the world as they knew it had been ravaged by a conflict that was fiercer than anything their history books had ever accounted. The combined forces of the Elemental Nations had fought toe-to-toe with the seemingly immortal Uchiha Madara, and his never ending army of clone soldiers, backed up by the hundreds of un-dead abominations created by Yakushi Kabuto.

Attacks came from both sides, only to be negated by the others defences. The battles were long, arduous, and deadly; yet both sides were resigned to a daily stalemate. Wherever ground was made on one battlefront, it was lost at another.

That was the state of things in the Elemental World, until the Allied command centre in Konohagakure no Sato received an emergency broadcast from the East. It was short, and hampered terribly by interference, but its message had been clear; the Mizukage and her village had been caught unawares by a full-scale assault.

There were no survivors. The Mizukage and what was left of her shinobi force had rounded up what civilians they could find, and barricaded themselves in the communications building. From what those on the other end of the connection could see via the garbled transmission, anyone who could carry a weapon did so.

It was their last stand.

The last thing they saw was the lady Mizukage in heated battle with a dark-haired man gazing at her with black and red eyes. The blood curdling scream she let out as she was engulfed by black flames was cut short by the static that came from the end of the transmission.

The Hidden Village in the Mist – the Mizukage and her people – had been wiped off the face of the map...

* * *

"Damn it, Sasuke..." A venomous voice muttered through his porcelain mask as he went over what had occurred during the briefing for this mission.

Tsunade had made his squadron watch the entire recording for full effect during their briefing. Being one of the leading Sixth Division squadrons, they had seen and done things most normal shinobi couldn't even dream of, but even they knew what they were seeing was beyond evil. Revenge wasn't an idea that he had followed at all in his life, but seeing the way that Sasuke's eyes gazed gleefully as the Mizukage burned under his technique made his blood boil. Forget about capturing an S-rank criminal to stand trial for his crimes, he wanted to execute him personally, and he was sure that each and every one of those under his command would do the same.

The way she flaunted the outrageous actions of the Missing-Nin could have been considered to be cruel, or distasteful. But being a Captain in the Sixth Division – the name given to the newly formed Allied Forces 'Special Branch' – and one so close to the Godaime Hokage, Zero knew the meaning behind her display. She wanted an eye for an eye. She was telling him that she wanted Sasuke dead, and should the opportunity present itself, his resolve should be unwavering.

"Something bothering you, Taichou?" A womanly voice penetrated his mask, pulling him back to reality. The soft tones rolled over him, yet he knew that its owner was definitely one not to take for granted as being a 'soft touch'.

"When is there not?" The ANBU Captain held back a laugh before sighing behind his colourless mask.

He glanced over to the petite woman who moved in formation alongside him. The female ANBU member barely came up to the man's shoulders, yet she wasn't exactly what you would label as 'short'. Her curvaceous yet slender physique was amplified by her tight-fitting attire. A sculpted breast-plate protected the objects that were idolised by the male population of Konoha, and envied by the female populace. Only the Hokage herself could boast a more perfect chest...if that was your thing.

Dark-blue hair flowed down the entirety of her back, almost touching the waist of her combat trousers as her rear swayed hypnotically through her perpetual motion. She could feel her Buntaichou's eyes wandering all over her body, caressing her features without invitation to do so.

She _really_ didn't like that.

"Did I give you permission to look at me in that way, _Taichou_?" The same soothing tone of voice invaded his porcelain mask, but the way it was laced with killer intent caused him to avert his eyes from her faultless body. Unfortunately, his gaze rested upon her eye line.

Orange met pure-white as she turned to face him. Their stares locked in place. Zero couldn't blink as he gazed helplessly into her pupil-less Byakugan eyes. The same could be said for the resolute Hyuga who stared hopelessly into the slotted pupils surrounded by orange-tinted irises.

"Are you two _ever _going to just take my advice and 'get a room'?" The indifference in the male figures remark was irritating to no end.

"**Shut the fuck up, antler boy**." They gave each other a bemused look when they realised that they had snapped at him in unison, before looking back over their shoulders to the male who had incurred their wrath. They heard him mutter one word in reply... "Troublesome."

It seemed to spark some laughter among those behind them, much to the scorn of the Taichou, and Fukitaichou. Zero growled loud enough for the two at the back of the eight-man squadron to hear him, shutting them up. Tora merely sighed and looked back towards their destination. As much as she hated to admit it publicly, she really did want them to get a room. It had been far too long...

"How far away are we, Tora?" Zero asked his Fukitaichou as he tried to think of a way to get back at his subordinate with the deer mask. _"Maybe I should tell Temari about that girl at the bar the other night?"_ He mused as he waited for a reply.

"Roughly five minutes or so to reach the coast, then another twenty to cross the water," the Hyuga bearing a pure white mask with black markings resembling that of a white tiger replied curtly as she scouted out the area using her Kekkei Genkai. "I don't see anyone in the direct vicinity of the village."

"Understood" was the solitary word that escaped his lips. _"At least we have time to set up a decent defensive position."_ The man with the colourless porcelain mask with no visible markings of any kind thought to himself as he tried to come up with a strategy to hold the island. This mission was as close to occupational suicide as you could get. Yet that's why his squad was chosen. Suicide missions were their speciality.

Upon seeing the collapse of the third largest military village within the Allied Shinobi Force, the Godaime Hokage, Senju Tsunade, had urged the other Kages to assist in mobilising a force to protect the eastern seaboard around the Land of Fire. The area was almost unprotected as the border forces were so lax in that area. There had been so little threat of attack that Tsunade had redirected most of the border force to the frontlines in the north-east.

In order to give the forces time to set up a military front at the coast, three advance defence teams were dispatched to the most easterly land points, to slow down any attacks that may have come from the east. General Darui's 'Guerrilla Squadron' was sent to the Land of Hot Water; Sabaku no Kankuro's 'Strike Division' was sent to the most south-easterly quadrant of Hi no Kuni; and Taichou Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto's 'Alpha Squadron' was dispatched to Uzushiogakure.

It wasn't much in terms of numbers, but Alpha Squadron was arguably one of the most talented and powerful cells in the entire army. Despite being only Twenty years of age, their Captain was the fourth highest ranking officer of Konoha's forces, and had previously commanded General Hatake's Division in battle on two occasions. His eight person squad was handpicked from the new 'Shinobi' ANBU division, and each member was at least of low-Jounin in rank.

His Fukitaichou, Hyuga Hinata, had been removed from her position as Heir to the throne of the Hyuga Clan the second that she entered the ANBU training programme three years previous, following the decimation of her squad nine months into the war. Of the sixty men and women that were commanded by Tokubetsu Jounin Yamashiro Aoba, only nine returned. From her original Genin squad, only she and Aburame Shino survived. Despite her decision to join the Sixth Division, once her father found out that she had been hand-picked to be a member of Captain Zero's personal attack division, Hiashi gave her the chance to be the heir once again. She declined. Nine months later, her father was killed in the 'Great Naruto Bridge Massacre', leaving her sister Hanabi as Heir to the Clan.

Despite his kind-hearted nature and overly shy attitude towards women, Chōjūrō was a force to be reckoned with. After the events of the previous night, he was the sole remaining member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū, and one of only a handful of Kiri shinobi that remained in the world. Even though his face was covered by a shark-like mask with the symbol of the 'Hunter-nin' on the forehead, the rest of the squad could feel his suffering.

Naruto had been given the luck of Kami when he was supplied with a shinobi from the 'Medic-nin' division. She may have been fourteen years his senior, but her ability as a medical shinobi was second only to her Sensei, the Godaime Hokage. Shizune had been a vital asset to his team since its establishment, a little over two years ago. Initially, Naruto had asked for Sakura, but she had declined. The War had really changed her.

One of the ultimate weapons within his group was its contingent from Sunagakure. After the initial days of the war, and her effective nature in immobilising Edo Tensei's using her sealing jutsu's, Maki was drafted into the Allied Forces ANBU division. With her ability to incapacitate, and her Buntaichou's ability to reverse-summon their bodies to a realm not too dissimilar to the concept of hell itself – the rogue Edo Tensei, Uchiha Itachi, helped Naruto to create a dimensional realm in which the fires of the Amaterasu burned indefinitely – it made light work of even the most troublesome of enemies.

Upon the death of his teammate, and the incapacitation of his leader, Omoi joined the Sixth Division. It wasn't long before he had been drafted into Alpha Squadron, after a year of leading the Kenjutsu training programme for the rookies. Chōjūrō had told him early on in their partnership that if he had been born in Kiri, he would easily have made it into their fabled group of swordsmen. The admiration Omoi had for his Captain stemmed from his likeness with his Jounin-sensei, Killer Bee; and like his sensei, he would be willing to lay his life down to protect him.

Including himself, three of the squads' members were candidates to become the Rokudaime Hokage, each of which was the head of their respective clans.

Nara Shikamaru was a complete pain in the ass when he wanted to be, but a competent and dependable member of the squad nonetheless. He specialised in his Clan's Shadow Manipulation techniques, and tended to attack from mid-to-long range...perfect for his lazy attitude to his work. The man's intelligence and tactical awareness seemed to be a trait held by all Nara's, many of whom worked closely with Generals and Taichou's across the war torn world. Like his former teammate, Ino, he lost his father in the opening days of the Fourth Shinobi War, and through the aftermath found his way into ANBU.

Despite being the youngest squad member at only Sixteen years of age, Sarutobi Konohamaru was possibly the deadliest on his day, aside from the Taichou of course. He had suffered a hard life. With the loss of his father as an infant, then the old man, even his uncle when he was just a Genin, it was an intolerable time in his life. The first year or two of the war had been straightforward for his team, who tended to stay in Konoha due to their status as rookie Genin. That didn't last long. His Genin squad was ambushed during a marauding mission into enemy territory. Naruto took care of him when he recovered from the critical unit at the hospital. The rest of his unit wasn't so lucky.

Zero definitely knew that he had been blessed with his current squad. Despite the insurmountable weight that each of them held on their shoulders, he wouldn't change a single one of them. Each and every one of them was a specialist in their particular field, and they had enough firepower to counter any force they had come across before. Well, before today anyway. Kami he hoped that Madara didn't attack the island with his full force. Even he wasn't sure if they could hold out very long against an army, even with two chakra powerhouses in his group.

* * *

They had been running over the vast expanse of water between the island and the mainland for twenty minutes. The shore was within sight. Naruto's heart sank as he saw the destruction. From his viewpoint the place had almost been completely levelled. It was hard to believe that _this_ was all that remained of the Uzumaki Clans legacy; a pile of rubble and one man who had been burdened as a jailor for a demon.

Solid ground beneath their feet was a welcoming sight for Maki and Shizune, who despite their high precision chakra control, were running low on their reserves. The light glow underneath the squads feet dissipated as they no longer needed to surge chakra into their legs to partake in the nigh impossible task of walking on water.

"Okay, fan out and look for some decent vantage points whilst Saru and I set up our defensive perimeter. And no sloppy work laying the traps...I'm looking at you, _Antlers_." Zero ordered as all but one of the members nodded in unison before disappearing in various forms of shunshin. The man with deer-like markings on his mask glared momentarily before strolling away idly, muttering something about the nickname he had been given.

Zero and his subordinate donning a mask with markings similar to that of an ape sped through the destruction, en route to the most easterly part of the island. It was such a shame. The landscape seemed so lush and colourful, yet the area directly surrounding the village was barren, nothing short of a wasteland.

"How many do you think you could make, comfortably?" Zero asked the youngest member of his team. Naruto had always thought of Konohamaru as a protégé of sorts, personally teaching him many of his techniques and skills.

"I'd say a couple of hundred with enough chakra to still fight to High-Chuunin standard. Why do you ask?" The gruff broken voice of the teenager replied almost smugly as he gave his Sensei-of-sorts a quick glance. Zero could tell he was puffing out his chest as he spoke.

"Because I'm going to stay in Sennin Modo for the time being, and I'm limited to about forty." That caused an audible chuckle to ignite from the younger of the two, much to the dismay of the older. "Keep that up and I won't teach you Sennin Modo _at all_." That shut him up.

The duo crossed their fingers in a familiar pattern before chiming out their technique in unison.

"**Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** Hundreds of figures in ANBU attire littered the narrow coastline as they stood in formation.

"I want a perimeter set up three kilometres off shore. I want _nothing _to get through without one of you seeing it. If they come, retreat to the shoreline and engage. Is that understood?" The order bellowed out so that all could hear.

"**Hai**," each of the Kage Bunshin's chimed as they gave the Buntaichou a quick salute, before fading from view.

"Come in Taichou, over." The crackling in his ear signified a radio connection from a member of his squad.

"Go for Zero," he responded as he remained transfixed on the coastline as it bombarded the shore, wave after wave. It had been so long since he had seen the ocean.

"Eer... I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I think I've found something, Taichou." The female voice he knew as his Fukitaichou spoke in a dazed fashion. "I'm in the southern quadrant, over." The static in his earpiece signalled to him that she had severed the connection.

Zero's shoulders slumped, sighing loud and deep enough that his subordinate couldn't help but laugh. He only ever got like this when the Fukitaichou was involved.

"Okay, something's spooked Tora. I'm going to check it out. You meet up with the rest of the squad back at the rendezvous." The pure-white mask of the Taichou bowed slightly to signify he had no intention of waiting for Konohamaru's reply, before he shunshined away to Hinata's location.

"Kami I hope those two get laid soon. All this sexual tension is bad for missions." The dark-haired teen sighed as he set off back to the centre of the demolished village.

* * *

It had only been a minute or so since she had severed the connection, but Hinata felt the change in air pressure that signified the arrival of the man she would blindly follow to the afterlife without one iota of hesitation. She raised her head from her crouched position as she pinpointed his location on the other side of the courtyard.

The Byakugan was a beautiful piece of genetic evolution. She had spent so many years admiring him from afar using her Kekkei Genkai, and today was no exception. And what a specimen of a man he was to admire. It would be difficult for any normal person to see much of his body due to the fact he was draped in a white cloak adorned by all those that were considered Captains within the ranks of the mask-wearing special branch. However, no flimsy piece of material would be able to keep her prying eyes away. Not that she needed to pry; she had seen him in his entirety, willingly so,many times before.

That perfectly chiselled torso hidden by a dull, damaged chest plate. Those muscular arms coated in various sealing marks concealed by jutted arm guards. His unblemished face; perfectly handsome by anyone's standards, covered by his imperious pure-white mask with no discernible markings or decoration. All that was on view were his peculiar orange tinted eyes, and long golden hair that shot out in all directions. She couldn't remember the last time he had cut it. When she asked him about it he said it was a memento to his late sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin. It looked like a lion's mane, but she had seen firsthand how something as harmless as unkempt hair could be so deadly.

"Hey, this better be good. Otherwise I'm gunna promote Shikamaru to Fukitaichou as punishment for dragging me out of my way." His irritated voice draped in sarcasm failed to register as she continued to gape in admiration with her back turned to him.

She felt the rising temperature in her cheeks as the fiery blush continued to grow as he sighed in that childish way of his, before slowly walking towards her. She watched as his alluring eyes darted all over the court yard, taking in as much as he could as he walked. Even with the defence perimeter set up, Naruto was always on guard. She would have liked to have thought it was something he had picked up since becoming a shinobi, but she knew that keen insight into danger was a defence mechanism created through his unfortunate childhood.

"You dorealise I can see what you're feeling with _these _eyes right?" He smirked as her back straightened up, tensing as she realised she had been caught out. "Elevated heart rate, increasing body temperature, and let's not forget the images of me naked." Naruto could've sworn he felt the slightest hint of killer intent weaved into the lust radiating from her when he caught her out.

He fully expected a palm of compressed air to fire directly at his head; that was her usual response to these things. Surprisingly she appeared to ignore his jibe.

"Does anything in this courtyard seem out of place to you?" The crouched kunoichi called out to him as she tried her hardest to reduce her body temperature.

"Straight down to business, huh?" He smirked as he moved to within ten feet of her. "Now that you mention it, the buildings do seem different. They're older, much older. The decor is completely different to what we saw on the eastern quadrant."

The more he thought about it, the stranger a sensation he received. Everywhere else in the village seemed to be completely levelled, but here, roughly one-fifth of the buildings surrounding this square were still standing. The stone used for building materials was completely different to anywhere else. The whole feel of this quadrant screamed antiquity at him. Something was definitely wrong here.

"Maybe this was the centre of the village...and the buildings were reinforced to withstand attack?" He mused as he received a shake of the head from his Fukitaichou.

"I was doing a sweep of the area with my Byakugan and found some abnormalities." With that she backed away from her position, allowing her Captain to see what she had been scrutinising for the past five minutes.

"What the hell is that?!" The long haired blonde yelled in a state of bewilderment and uncertainty.

"It's dead, whatever it is." The Hyuga replied as she looked back at the metallic serpent head sticking out from the dirt.

"Kami, I _hate_ snakes." Naruto groaned as he gazed at the grotesque looking skull. He had never seen or heard of anything like this before.

A flare in the Kunoichi's chakra signalled the reactivation of her Kekkei Genkai. "It appears to be a type of body armour that envelops the wearer. Judging by the physiology I would say it was a human, rather than an armoured summon." The clarification of its species did little to sway the uncertain stare her Taichou was giving it.

"Have you found any others?" He asked as he reached down to touch what he now knew to be some form of helmet.

As he examined it his finger brushed over a soft patch moulded into the side of the helmet, inadvertently causing the metallic serpent head to almost fold away, presenting him with a look at the armours inhabitant. He recoiled slightly at the sight of the skull, to the mild amusement of his subordinate.

"Many, at least a platoon, but they seem to be buried deeper. The destruction of the village was about thirty years ago, so I assume they've been here since." She paused as she glanced over to her main find. "_That_, is why I dragged you here."

"Maybe they were all samurai or something?" He surmised as he averted his gaze to the left where Hinata's dainty hand was pointing towards. "An archway," Naruto asked, "what's so special about an archway?" It poked out from beneath a pile of rubble at the far side of the derelict square, no taller than a person meaning that it was probably in pieces.

"It's not an archway, it's a ring." Hinata replied with certainty, leaving the serpent head behind, and walking towards the object. "The rest of it is buried beneath all the rubble. Not only that, but it's made of metal, with a completely different architecture to the rest of this village. If you think this section of the village is older, this archway – or ring – or whatever it is, is ancient."

The white mask hidden beneath the mane of blonde hair seemed to contemplate her words, as he followed her along the courtyard.

"Well, my clones haven't reported anything yet. I guess we have time for a little detour." Without warning, Naruto rushed head on at the pile of rubble before him, a mass of chakra in the palm of his hand.

"Be caref –"

"Rasengan!" He screamed as he thrust the ball of energy into the disjointed pile of stone, cutting off the warnings by his subordinate.

Dust enveloped them as shards of rock sprayed the courtyard. Once it cleared, they saw the so called 'ring' in all its glory. "Sorry, you were saying something." Naruto tried his very hardest not to laugh as he surveyed his handy work.

"I was about to tell you to be careful because it is emitting some form of energy, but when have you ever listened to any of my advice." The sigh the masked female gave him was always the same, and Naruto loved it.

"Well, I bought you that lacy number didn't I? I'm sure that was on your advice." Smirking beneath his mask, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto left the reddening Hyuga to closely inspect the metallic ring. Through his Sennin Modo he could feel her body temperature elevating rapidly. She was either deeply embarrassed, or remembering what they did after she tried it on for him, but for once Naruto was more interested in something other than her.

"Baka," Hinata managed to say as she knelt beside him.

"Well, I guess I could always seal it and take it back with us. Though we could leave it for the time being and explore some of these intact buildings. Maybe there are some archives or something." Naruto proposed, inspecting the bizarre symbols etched into the metal. The thing was enormous, nothing the likes of which he had ever seen. It was propped up against a semi-collapsed building. Had it of been in a fully upright position, it would've looked even more daunting.

"Shizune is already doing a sweep in the far left building," His Vice-Captain replied, before setting off towards one of the other intact buildings. Instinctively, Zero raised his hand to his ear, pressing a button on his communications device before hearing a pinch of static.

"Tora, Tonton, and I are checking out some abnormalities in the southern district. Make camp and keep a watchful eye on that ocean. Zero out." A short reply of notification from the remaining squad members, and the white-masked Captain was gone.

His instincts carried him through the structurally undamaged two-floored building that stretched the length of the courtyard. An elongated corridor traversed from one side to the other, with dozens of doors on either side. Most had been burst open, the doors rocked off their hinges. Occasionally there were closed doors, but a gentle push and they fell into the rooms they protected.

The contents of the rooms were strewn across the floor. Most appeared to be offices, though others showed signs of scientific equipment; broken glass and torn up paper everywhere he looked. More importantly, there were skeletons. Everywhere. These people – his people – had been slaughtered at their work stations. Most of them were civilians, that much could be seen from the dishevelled rags that clung to the bones. Occasionally he caught the dull shine of a hit-ai-ite through the derelict furnishings. Leaf markings were few and far between, but the spiral of the Uzumaki was prominent.

He felt a modicum of anger as he looked upon the waste that had once been his mother's native land. Yet, he had known nothing other than Konoha. This place wasn't even a distant memory for him. All he knew of this island was the short paragraph it was given in the history book he kept in his quarters. According to the text that seemingly everyone in Konoha had come to use as their base of knowledge of their former ally, Uzushiogakure had been caught in between a battle between the Leaf and the Cloud. The landscape had been decimated, and the surviving Uzumaki scattered.

The lack of information was always a worry for him, not to mention that the archives on the events were restricted. His suspicions had arisen greatly since walking through this tomb that was once brimming with life. There had been no sign of any foreign shinobi. Aside from those armoured serpents, the dead shinobi were from the old alliance. Yet, that was a matter for another day...

"Ah, here we are." It had taken almost an entire sweep of the building, but Naruto had eventually found what he was searching for. He pressed the palm of his hand against the small spiral etched into a tasteless wall ornament. A surge a chakra forced into the spiral, and a moment later a door opened in the floor. "Tora, found something. I'm in the – "

"I know where you are, dumbass." He caught the sound of her sighing.

"Tonton, you coming?"

"No, Zero-san. I found the medical centre...or at least, what's left of it. I'm checking it out, over." The static signified her cutting her connection.

Naruto waited briefly before his backup arrived. He heard the footsteps echoing down the corridor. The clattering of loose stones grew louder until she was only a few feet away.

"Whatever the Konoha shinobi were looking for when they ransacked this place, I don't think they found it."

"So they missed the gaping hole in the floor?" She humoured. "And what do you mean 'Konoha shinobi'? I thought that all this was the Cloud trying to invade?"

"That's not what the evidence shows. I counted thirty-four Hit-ai-ite, all were affiliated with Konoha or the island," Naruto paused. "If we get out of this alive, I've got some questions for Tsunade."

"H-hai, Naruto." Nervously Hinata fell in line with him, looking down the darkened stair case. He seemed troubled, yet he was trying his hardest not to let it hamper his command.

"This trap door was activated by a chakra seal on that ghastly sculpture. Either they didn't find it, or it needed an Uzumaki signature to open it." It made sense. After all, the Uzumaki clan probably had safeguards in place to make sure that their vital information could never be stolen. "Shall we?" He asked, taking his first step into the darkened stairwell.

Hinata watched as her captain descended into the darkness. She waited a moment before she saw a flicker of light from the stairwell. The first steps of the Hyuga were in total darkness. The wood creaked beneath her, causing her to almost hop down onto the next. The dim light part-way down the stairwell swung as the stale air exited the hidden room.

"Who would've thought this place would still have power..." Hinata found herself inquiring as she dipped beneath the hanging light bulb.

"Probably has an isolated generator..." A voice replied from the void in front of her. As soon as she passed the light, Hinata found herself declining in darkness once again. There were so many steps, and the next light seemed so far away. "...If I wasn't trying to enhance my Sennin Modo, I'd use a fire Jutsu, but I can't see shit down here with these eyes."

"Neither can I," Hinata replied somewhat perplexed. Her Byakugan was active, yet she couldn't see anything beyond her standard perception of the world without using her Kekkei Genkai. "M-my Byakugan isn't working..."

"Well, performance issues affects the best of us," Naruto laughed in reply. But before his female companion could muster up the chakra to fling him head first down the pitch black staircase, he added, "There is probably some seal that shields ocular Jutsu or something. They clearly didn't underestimate Konoha. Don't worry; it'll probably clear up once we get down there...that is, if this isn't the gateway to the underworld." The nervous chuckle sated her desire to hurt him, not her other desires though.

Half-dozen more overhead lights and they reached solid stone. Neither could imagine how far down they had come. Yet the sparse lighting seemed to allow a greater field of vision down here, yet it didn't really matter. Naruto's assumptions were correct. Hinata could see the entire level they were on. Although not spanning as far as the length of the building overhead, the underground facility was massive, clearly encroaching into the area of the square above. Most importantly, everything was intact.

Somehow this intact complex was even more eerie than the remnants of battle overhead. A few offices were littered in between countless rooms full of scientific equipment. The two masked figures made their way to what appeared to be the archives after whizzing through a number of other rooms. Reams of books and scrolls cluttered the shelves of the dust-filled room. No one had been here in a long time, and nothing seemed missing.

"Did you know there would be something like this?" Hinata queried, watching as her Captain ran his fingers along the binds of books on a shelf at chest height. He seemed in a world of his own, taking forever to answer her as he plucked one from the shelf, flicked it open, and began to read.

"Actually, yes. There was something similar in the Namikaze mansion. A hidden room you could say. Inside were the greatest secrets my parents owned. Jutsu, scrolls, seals, and weapons; things like that. I doubt even the Sandaime or Godaime knew about it." As he turned a page, he sighed deeply. "Something else was definitely happening in this village."

"Something like what?" Hinata asked tensely.

"These books seem to be records. The first few pages seem to account S-rank missions, experiments, and technologies I can't even comprehend. I'm sure all of these books have similar things. Considering this stuff was sealed away, I'm assuming this was all happening outside of public knowledge."

"So, you're saying that there is a hidden base...within a hidden village? Why? All this equipment, it doesn't feel right to me." She seemed puzzled, yet all he could do was laugh at her naivety.

"I know you're only a part of the Sixth, as opposed to ANBU, but what do you think _we _do...well, would be doing if we weren't at war? We'd be completing secret missions, outside of the standard forces...sanctioned by the Hokage I might add. I suspect that this was just another iteration of the same thing. No, what's confusing me is the overuse of the term 'ring' in this script. Most of these extracts seem to have something to do with 'the ring'." The blonde Captain muttered as he continued flicking through the pages.

"You don't think they mean – you know – the huge ring leaning against the other building?" Hinata questioned her own words as soon as she was saying them.

"Come on – no – there's no way they could mean..." He stopped talking when he turned to face her. At first she thought he was gazing at her in that way he did, but she quickly noticed his stare was directed to the wall behind her. "...Or, well, they could be talking about that."

Instinctively she turned, to be greeted with a painting of what appeared to be the thing they had unearthed twenty minutes before. The metallic ring stood in the centre of the square, burrowed into a pedestal of solid stone. Lights were depicted all around the rings surface. The centre was a shimmering blue the likes of which they had seen only looking at the ocean.

"What the – "

"...Fuck," the lady-like Hyuga finished, dumbfounded by the wall hanging in the well-lit archive.

"Grab what you can and put it on the table. I'm gunna try and seal as much of this as I can so we can go over this back at command." Rushed, Naruto began to sack the shelves, picking up piles of books and dumping them on the table in the centre of the room. Hinata was going to argue, but it wasn't the time or the place. Battle was potentially moments away.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto filled his tattooed body seals in a matter of moments. Even using what sealing scrolls he had brought with him still left about one-third of the archive left on the table.

"I really don't want to leave this stuff, but I haven't got any more room." Tucking the handful of smaller scrolls into the internal pockets lining his Captain's cloak, Naruto turned away from the archives heading back to the stairwell. "I can always ask Tsunade for a solo-mission to come and retrieve the rest. But for now we better get out of here, we've already spent too long dallying around."

"Yeah, and you didn't even get to see what underwear I was wearing, _Tai-chou_." His footsteps stopped, body clenched as she all but skipped ahead of him. That same sweet voice again. Kami, he hated the way she found time to tease him even in these situations.

"You're gunna regret that when we get back home." It was a hollow threat, but he liked to say it anyway.

A few moments later, they found their way back to the stairwell. It seemed even more daunting as they looked up the stairs. Half way up they felt a gentle rocking, followed by a heavy shaking.

"That sounded close," Naruto uttered as he reached for his comm. "Saru, come in. Antlers, do you read me?" Nothing but static.

"Shit, you better gear up." Hinata picked up her pace, as too did her Taichou. They began to sprint towards the opening overhead. Within moments they were back into the derelict building. Naruto had the foresight to force some chakra into the seal preventing others from finding the entrance. Yet as he did so, he almost keeled over in agony. "Son of a –" he all but screamed.

"What's wrong?" She may have acted tough, but she was still the same girl underneath; caring.

"Point your Byakugan to the shore. I've just had five untimely deaths dispelled into my brain." Naruto's hand was behind his mask, furiously rubbing away at his temple, before fixing his mask and heading for the exit at his full sprint. Hinata was struggling to keep contact.

"There seems to be thousands of signatures by the shore. I'm picking up living signatures, white-clones, and Edo's. They seem to be in battle, Taichou."

"Saru, come in, over."

"Zero! Where the fuck have you been? We're being overrun here." The unusually tense voice of Nara Shikamaru screamed into his ear.

"If you've been screwing the Fukitaichou whilst we're fighting for our lives, I'm gunna make sure you regret it later," Maki's voice cut in. She was scary when she wanted to be.

All Zero could do was sigh into his mask. "Why do you all think that's the only thing we do...Hold the line. We'll be there in a minute, over." With that they were gone.

* * *

Instantly they threw themselves into the fray. Hundreds lined the shores, with hundreds more behind. Zero still felt the presence of twenty-eight of his clones. The Senjutsu enhanced Kage Bunshin's took a lot more out of him when they met their demise. Dazed, he launched a flurry of shuriken at a line of advancing white-clones as another memory flushed into his mind.

"Saru, how many you got?" He shouted over the noise of battle. 'Saru' was only a couple of feet away from him.

"Less than half," the dark-haired youth replied as he cut an onrushing clone in two, "but I could probably make more if we need more time."

Zero nodded, but said nothing in return. Launching another volley of shuriken at a different group of clones, the blonde captain unsheathed the blade he hid underneath his cloak, darting in between two Oto-nin. When the Fourth Shinobi War began, Naruto had felt somewhat aggrieved at taking lives, but now he cut them down the same way he would a Zetsu-clone.

He weaved through the defences of the first, burying the tip of his blade into their abdomen, severing the spinal column as he forced it through. The other came at him heatedly, with a kunai raised above their head. Zero caught their wrist, loosing the knife and using their own weapon to deftly slit the shinobi's throat.

There was no respite. As the limp body of the Oto-nin dropped to the floor, another wave of combatants swamped him. He dropped a couple of clones before they had time to close in, but he couldn't stop the Edo Tensei of a Suna Shinobi from launching a Katon Jutsu at him. The flames engulfed him. The female warrior admired her handy work with those same black eyes all Edo shared, only to feel the tip of a blade at the crux of her neck.

"Too slow," a dark voice whispered into her ear, slicing through her neck whilst simultaneously forming hand seals with his remaining hand. "Gyaku Jigoku Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The moment he slammed his fist into her back, she was gone, leaving the blank-masked ANBU to admire the flames.

Another attack came from his blind spot, yet with the enhanced awareness provided by Sennin Modo, he was able to counter accordingly. As the tip of the blade passed through his guard, Zero vaulted backwards, somersaulting over the head of the blade-wielding Shinobi. He had to look twice at the porcelain mask to make sure. It looked a hell of a lot like Omoi, yet he could feel that it was only a Zetsu-clone. He dispatched it without a second thought, before activating his transponder.

"Omoi, you still alive out there? I just fought you." Zero asked, backing up to the position of his youngest squad member.

"Yeah, one managed to get through. I'm alright." The reply came in through his headset. Omoi sounded exhausted. Yet, the captain knew that he was nowhere near his limit. He and Chōjūrō had taken up a position at the north of the shoreline. They were formidable opponents with a blade. Even Naruto struggled against them in bladed combat.

"Taichou, I'm picking up a burst of energy from the southern quadrant, over." The calm voice of his Fukitaichou broke in. She had taken the southern tip of the shore along with Shizune.

"What? Did they breach the line?" Confused, Naruto tore away from the battle in order to focus his Sennin Modo on the courtyard.

"I'm not sure. Four life signs just appeared out of nowhere. It could be Madara and Kabuto." Hinata replied.

"Right," Zero affirmed. "Command, this is Zero. Under attack from two thousand plus enemy combatants, what's the defence situation, over?"

"Understood, Zero. Other divisions also reported combat. Defensive lines near completion. Estimate ten minutes, over." The voice of the female from the command centre replied. It would take a little over thirty minutes to get back to the defence line, Zero knew.

"We're gunna retreat then. Tell the central line to expect heavy resistance. Zero out." The connection was severed. With a little fiddling, he changed his communications device back to Alpha Squads frequency. "Okay, listen up. Everyone get ready to retreat. I'm gunna create a diversion. Everyone head for the southern quadrant. We need to clean up the breach before we can evac."

"**Hai**," their voices replied in unison.

As Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto returned to the fray, he felt seven figures leap away in harmony. All that was left were a few dozen Kage-Bunshin, some of his own, but more of Konohamaru's. Thousands of enemies were staring him down. He glanced across the faces, almost disappointed not to see any sign of Sasuke. Satisfied that his team had reached a safe distance, he loosed what little projectiles he had left, taking out another dozen or so combatants.

He closed his eyes. "Let's finish this off shall we?" As they flicked open, the golden irises had been replaced with white, the slotted pupils somewhat normal once again. "Tajuu, Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!" The masked Shinobi screamed. In an instant, legions upon legions of plain-masked ANBU lined up behind him. There were so many that you couldn't see beyond them.

* * *

"Um, Carter...this doesn't look like the place the MALP showed. That was more...Hawaii. This is more, Chernobyl. In fact, where _is _the MALP?" A disgruntled man yelled as he tried to pick himself up from the rubble he had been flung onto. He wore a dark green pair of trousers, accompanied by heavily worn boots, and a sandy flak vest covered in pockets.

"I don't know what to tell you, Sir. According to the data we've travelled to P3X-247," 'Carter' replied hastily, flicking around with the device attached to her wrist.

"General Hammond, do you read?" The tall male asked, holding his hand up to his ear. The wisps of grey in his hair signified his age. He looked suspiciously back into the blue aura that took shape in the middle of the metallic ring.

"Loud and clear, Colonel - We're picking up visual on the MALP, but the signal is so weak that we can barely see anything." A voice replied into the ears of the team.

"Well, that's fortuitous, because we can't see the MALP, Sir."

"General, can you turn the camera back towards the gate?" Hurriedly, the female cut into the conversation.

"We just did, Captain Carter," they paused. "It – It's not on."

"I think we've seen something like this before, Sirs. Remember the time we ended up at the alternate gate in –"

"Carter! I thought we were never gunna talk about that?"

"Yes, Sir -" Abashed she shied away. "But I think that could be the cause. It would explain why we ended up here and not with the MALP, but we're at the correct planetary coordinates."

"Oi," the ranking member of the team sighed, rubbing his head vigorously. "Alright, we're gunna check this place out for a couple of hours. We'll dial back as planned, O'Neill out."

"Understood, Colonel. Hammond out."

As the radio signal died, so too did the connection in the ring. The blue haze disappeared quickly, just as a light would go dark at the flick of a switch. The male looked back at the metallic ring, seemingly analysing it with as little expertise as he had. "I didn't even think a gate could work in this condition," He stated more than asked as he looked at the damage it had taken.

"Provided that there's no damage to the capacitors, and there's nothing blocking the event horizon, it should work, Sir." She replied whilst trying to help another team member off the rubble-filled floor. At most she looked mid-twenties, beautiful face, with short cropped blonde hair, and a strange weapon slung over her shoulder.

"Ouch," the figure she was helping complained as he managed to get to his feet, "thanks, Sam." She nodded as the mop-haired figure replaced his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Whereas the other male looked physically fit, this one was much leaner with a non-military look about him. "Well, I don't think the MALP did this place justice." He said jokingly, looking around the courtyard.

"Looks like a bomb hit this place. I doubt there's anyone around." The seasoned male stated, checking the extremities through the sight in his weapon. "Wait, do you feel that?" He asked. There was a low grumble, a shaking that he felt in his knees.

"This could be the result of seismic activity. We could be feeling aftershocks." The diminutive female answered dutifully.

"No, they definitely feel more like explosions."

"O'Neill, I do not believe we are alone." The final member of the quartet stated. He was much larger than any of the others, with a bizarre marking in the centre of his forehead.

If Hinata was a betting woman, she'd have said he was both taller and heavier than the Raikage. He also carried a similar skin-tone to those native to Kumogakure. Omoi seemed to note that too. Yet the most peculiar thing about him was the weapon he carried. Whereas the other three seemed to bear the same misshapen metallic kunai throwers, the other figure looked more like a monk, plodding along using his staff.

"Yeah, I'm with ya Teal'c. I definitely feel like I'm being watched." The man known as 'O'Neill', seemingly the team leader, agreed. "Daniel, go check out one of those buildings. See if you can decide if we're gunna have a Goa'uld problem on our hands. Carter, go with him. I'll sweep the perimeter with Teal'c."

They began to separate into two groups, one heading for the most intact building within proximity of the square, the other heading for the outskirts.

...

"I can't understand a word they are saying," The woman wearing the mask with the pig-like markings queried, "but the leader is clearly the guy with the greying hair, and he appears to have given some orders."

"More importantly, how the hell did they get here? We're in the middle of an island, and they just appeared here out of nowhere." A confused voice stated. Another female, except she did not wear a mask. Instead she had chosen to partake in the act of wrapping her features in bandages. All you could see were her eyes and the slit that opened slightly when she spoke.

"It's something to do with that metal ring, I'm sure of it." The acting Captain noted as she watched the two groups walking towards their objectives.

"They don't look like Shinobi, but those weapons look pretty dangerous to me. Yet, one thing's for certain; they're definitely military of some sort. Not only do they have the equipment, but they walk in standard formation, weapons at the ready for battle at any moment." Shikamaru added.

"Well, we can't allow them to enter that building. That's where Zero and I found the information about the ring." Hinata replied.

"What do you propose?"

...

"_You're surrounded. Relinquish your weapons and we'll cause you no harm." _A distant voice boomed over the courtyard.

"What? Daniel, did I just imagine that?" O'Neill asked confusedly. "It sure as hell wasn't in English."

"I do not believe it was Goa'uld." Teal'c added.

"No, you're right. I think it was Japanese or something akin to Japanese." The male in the glasses stated, trying to wrap his head around the odd dialect. "I think they're asking us to surrender."

"_I'll only ask you once more; relinquish your weapons and we will cause you no harm."_

"Like hell," O'Neill shouted as he rushed back to the gate. When he cocked his weapon, it reverberated with an audible crack. "Carter, prepare to dial home."

"I can't! There's no DHD."

"But the MALP said there was one." O'Neill complained, only for it to dawn on him the gravity of their situation. "Son of a..."

"It's probably buried underneath all the rubble," Daniel bemoaned. He didn't carry one of the larger weapons, Hinata noted. That made him the easiest target.

"I don't know what to tell you, Sir." The woman in the group was in conversation with her Captain. It appeared as though they were arguing about something.

"Looks like we're gunna have to fight our way out." They were making no attempts to escape.

"_This is your last warning."_ The tone was sharper, the message short and sweet. Hinata noted that the leader and the female team member both held their weapons aloft, seemingly looking down the sight to try and find a target. The monk-like figure held his staff at his waste. A charge of electricity danced around the fatter end of the staff as it appeared to open.

"Hold on, Jack. I've not spoken it for a while, but I can speak Japanese." The last member of the group was clearly not part of the military, Hinata noted. He held a weapon in his hand, but did not direct it anywhere. Judging by the way he looked at the leader, he was trying to calm the situation. Amused, Hinata heard him speak once again. _"We mean no harm. We explorers from a land away far."_

"_What do you know; one of them can speak our language. Albeit his pronunciation is appalling and he can't formulate sentences properly." _Shikamaru joked with a worried tone. The order was about to come, he could feel it. He was just waiting for the word from his superior as he clenched the sharpened kunai.

"_Sorry, we can't take the risk right now. Now."_

"Ah, Daniel," Colonel O'Neill caught the words in his throat as he felt something pressing against his neck. Instincts kicked in, but he found himself completely incapable of moving. His joints had seized. He couldn't even pull the trigger on his weapon as he looked at the two masked figures stood in front of him, holding Daniel at knife-point.

Adjusting to the feel of a blade against his throat, he also noted the pressure in his side. Glancing to his hip he saw another crouched figure holding a sword that was pressed tightly into his kidney area. Even if he could move, he'd be dead before he could even try to loosen the grip of the person stood behind him.

Looking around he noted the severity of the situation. A lone figure stood behind Carter. Even Teal'c hadn't managed to escape. Two masked figures crouched at either side of the big Jaffa, the tips of their blades crossing around his neck. One was a slender design, much like he expected from a sword, but the other was oversized, misshapen, and looked like it could cleave a tank in half.

At the head, Daniel stood facing them. One dark-haired, wiry male wearing one of those peculiar masks stood at his side, holding his hands out in front of him bizarrely as he appeared to inspect the handgun in Daniels hand. A female stood on the other side of the Doctor. She had the strangest eyes. O'Neill found himself gazing, captivated by those weird, pupil-less eyes.

"_State your business or we'll kill one of your team, take the rest of you back to Konoha, and hand you over to the Torture and Interrogation division." _The greying Colonel straightened up as she spoke. She was the one who was speaking before. To think that she was the commander of this strange fighting unit. If he wasn't a word away from death, he'd have laughed.

"_We are explorers, like I said yesterday. Through the Stargate we came, ended here." _In a roundabout way, Daniel Jackson tried to answer her questions. It had been years since he had spoken this language, and just to make it more annoying these people spoke a strange dialect.

"_Stargate...what the hell is a Stargate?" _One of the masked figures stood by Teal'c shouted. O'Neill could tell by looking at him that it was a guy, but the voice was deeper than expected.

"_The ring. Look. The thing by building." _Daniel pleaded. He noted that the blade around his neck wasn't as tightly held as the others. 'They know I can speak their language and the others can't.' He thought as he saw the apprehensive looks in the faces of his teammates. _"It allows travel between worlds."_

"_Let me get this straight. You expect us to believe that you travelled here...from a different planet, through a giant metal ring?"_ The woman asked. Confusedly, she glanced over to the guy stood on the other side of Daniel. He appeared to shrug.

"_It is known." _Daniel replied. Despite the masks, he could see them all looking at him. Either he wasn't saying the right things, or they outright didn't believe him. _"Look, I'm saying you. We came here through that ring. We won't hurt you." _

Waiting silently, the woman in the masked measured what Daniel had been saying, and with a swift hand movement, her unit stood down. _"Tell your team this: If they try anything, we won't hesitate in killing them. You can tell us all about the bullshit story you've told when we get back home. You picked the worst possible time to come here." _She turned away from him, disappearing like a ghost. The man in the glasses looked twice, but completely lost her.

"She's on the roof," Daniel turned to Captain Carter's voice. Her outstretched hand was pointing to the far end of the courtyard, where a solitary silhouette stood on the rooftop. Nodding, the glasses wearing male looked back to his teammates.

"Put the guns away, I don't think they're going to hurt us. They seem to be preoccupied." Daniel pointed as three more disappeared from the courtyard. All that remained was the male stood besides Daniel, another stood besides the Colonel, and a final figure, their face covered in bandages, positioned in between Carter and Teal'c.

"I take it you had a _lovely _conversation whilst we were all getting a nice shave, Daniel. Please, do enlighten us as to why our lives suddenly aren't in danger." O'Neill lambasted as he flexed his arms. Whatever was stopping him from moving had disappeared.

All the military training he had received over the years ushered him to lift his P-90, fire a few rounds into the guy besides Daniel, and see how they fared against the others. Yet, something was stopping him this time. Assuming that they were hiding on the rooftops outside of their vision, they had managed to get the jump on the entire team, in less than the blink of an eye. Their movements were inhumane. They were outmanned, out skilled, and on a completely different level. Sure, a P-90 could beat a knife, but he doubted that the bullets were even fast enough to hit their targets before someone managed to slice his neck.

Resigned, he placed the weapon over his shoulder.

"Because, well, they said they wouldn't kill us. And to be perfectly honest, I don't think we could do anything about it if they did want to, Jack." Daniel surmised as he took a couple of paces away from the male at his side. At first he thought he'd stop him, but after the first steps he didn't seem to follow. "These people are clearly warriors, and judging by their attire and their dialect, I'd say they were some form of Ninja's."

"As in, 'sneaking around at night wearing black pyjamas and assassinating people' Ninja's?" The Colonel began to laugh as he looked over the three figures. Two wore peculiar masks, the other was bandaged seemingly from head to below her attire. He assumed it was a woman considering that the figure was wearing a dress of some sort. All three seemed to wear some form of plated armour over their torso, with similar garments on their arms and legs. Each had a pouch tied around their legs, and two carried a knife in their hand. The male stood beside himself carried a sword, but noted a knife in his other hand.

"It makes sense, Jack. We've come across various societies on our previous missions. Understandably many of the worlds take up an Egyptian heritage, but we've seen Viking, Mongolian, and Mayan communities too. I guess it was only a matter of time before we stumbled on something like this." Daniel addressed the laughs of his commander in his book-worm fashion.

"So what, we're in the middle of Japan? I don't see any wooden dojo's or Samurai or anything."

"_Samurai? Are you allies of theirs?" _The masked man with the thick black ponytail spoke. They couldn't understand what he said, but they all clearly heard him say 'Samurai'.

"_There are Samurai on this world?" _Daniel asked his captor. _"We were talking about our own planet. Samurai died out hundreds years ago."_

"_Yes, they are a member of the Allied Forces. But can you stop with this 'other planet' business for the time being...I'm trying to formulate strategy and you're throwing me off with that crap."_ The overbearing male seemed more bored than anything else.

"Well, I love standing around all day talking in a language I don't understand, but how about we get going? If we don't find the DHD then I'm gunna miss my weekly Television show."

"In a minute, Jack." Daniel batted away the grumbles of the aging figure, turning back to the masked man once again.

"_What is she looking for?" _He asked quietly whilst he pushed his handgun back into its holster. Since the moment that the masked woman had disappeared, Daniel Jackson had been drawn in by her. These people were surrounded by mystery.

Visibly, the guy sighed. Behind the mask, Daniel could tell the guy was probably pulling some pained face. His shoulders sunk as he heard the words of his native tongue escape the lips of the person wearing the glasses. For a moment Daniel felt like he was going to get his throat slit, but he seemed to somewhat reservedly answer his question.

"_We're in the middle of a warzone. Those rumbles you're feeling is our Captain holding off an army. As soon as she gives us the signal, we're moving to the shore."_

"_The shore? We near the coast?"_

"_No, we're on an island. Did you not know that?"_ The more Shikamaru conversed with him, the more he was starting to believe his crazy story about being from another planet. These people appeared to be complete clueless, or they were just putting on an exceptional act. Either way he knew he had the measure of them. If they tried anything they could be dispatched with little effort.

"_No idea. As I said, we came through the Stargate. This is the first time we've been here. And what do you mean, an army? How is one person holding off an army?" _Daniel had a feeling that his ability to speak the tongue was slowly coming back to him, but the more he understood the words, the less he actually understood.

"Hey, do you mind letting us in on your conversation?" Jack was pissed, that much Daniel could see. If there was anything Jack hated more than being in a sticky situation, it was being in a sticky situation without a clue about what was going on.

"In a minute, Jack. I'm trying to get some information."

"_Your friend seems a bit worried. The other two seem to be a lot more level headed though."_ The masked man glanced over to the aging soldier. He could tell just by looking at him that he was about one minute away from firing his weapon in frustration.

The muscular monk-like figure was difficult to read. There was a look in his eyes, one that seemed to know something that he wasn't letting on. He could be an issue due to his size, and that strange staff, but he was sure Maki could match him with speed. The woman was a bit of a mystery too. She didn't appear to take any notice of the situation. She was more interested in the thing wrapped around her arm, and the metallic ring leaning against the half-destroyed building. Shikamaru hadn't noticed it until now, but there was a perfect circle burrowed into the ground and wall behind the ring.

"_That's just Jack, he just doesn't want us to end up getting killed in our sleep or something." _That stifled a laugh from the bandaged woman. Daniel didn't quite know how to take that, but he left it for the moment. _"He wants to be on our way. We need to find a device so that we can go back home. If you help us we can be out of your hair and you can go back to your battle."_

"_Sorry, I'm under orders. Besides, I don't know how we can help. This village has been deserted for over twenty years. We've only been here an hour."_ Shikamaru stated as he felt the static in his ear. He looked towards the rooftop his Vice-Captain had suddenly vacated. Taking a few paces away from the rest of the group, he began to speak hurriedly into his communications device.

"Um, is that guy talking to himself?" O'Neill scratched his head as he looked at their captor, seemingly having a conversation with the inside of his mask.

Before he could receive an answer, the ground shook fiercely. A plume of dark smoke rose into the clear skies directly behind the northern building in the square. It took a few seconds, but the blast wave washed over them.

"What the hell was that?" O'Neill queried as he looked into the sky. His first thought was to go for his weapon, pulling it from his shoulder as three of the four 'ninja' landed in the square besides them. Their sudden arrival didn't perturb him. That cloud looked suspiciously mushroom-y...

"_That was our cue; time to move." _ The pony-tailed figure tore himself away from his mental breakdown just long enough to remember that there were civilians with them – well, non-shinobi at the very least. _"How much do you weigh?" _

Daniel looked at the man, torn between his bewilderment at the question, and the large explosion they had just felt. _"Um, about 170, why?"_

"_And the big guy?"_

"_Teal'c? 250...I'm not really sure. What's all this about?" _Daniel contemplated as he felt a slender hand slide around his waist. A glance to his left and his nose squashed onto another one of those strange masks. He couldn't see their face, but judging by their height and build, he suspected a female.

"Woah," Daniel craned his neck to see O'Neill struggling with the lanky shinobi besides him, the two swordsmen were propping up Teal'c, and the bandaged female held onto Carter much in the same way the other woman held onto him. Before Daniel could say anything they were already in the air. The speed with which they flew towards the rooftops made his stomach turn, yet he said nothing.

In a few moments they were well beyond the courtyard. Everything was a blur in front of him, but the blue was getting more and more pronounced. At a glance he could see the others moving at either side, with the ponytailed figure moving a dozen or so metres ahead. The wind whistled past his ears, but it still allowed for the explosions to seep in through the periphery. The cacophony of noise seemed to be getting further away, which the archaeologist could only assume was a good thing.

Moments later and they were stationary once again. The sudden halt in movement almost made Daniel lose his lunch. Yet, he managed to fight the urge due to the magnificent image in front of him. Crystal clear water expanded for miles, before abruptly ending at what seemed like a curved wall. It seemed to stretch as far as his eyes could see.

Before he could say anything, he once again found himself having to apologise for his friend, "God damn it. If you're gunna do that again, at least _warn _us before you make us a puddle of mush." Colonel O'Neill bemoaned to the deaf ears of his captors-come-saviours as Teal'c rocked by his side, the only thing holding him up was his staff-like weapon.

"_Hai, hai, sorry," _The ranking officer of this band of ninja held up his hands almost apologetically as he turned once again to Daniel. _"There's no way we can carry you all over the water. You'd best find your ship or whatever you came here on."_

"_I've already told you, we came here through the Stargate. We have no boats." _Daniel was growing tired of explaining this, yet the ponytailed male was clearly too sceptical to even contemplate the possibility of their story being true.

The low rumbling was catching up to them. The ten-strong company turned to look back at the dishevelled island. All they could see above the derelict buildings was flames. Every few seconds another explosion went off, adding to the blaze of ash and flame. As they watched on, two blurs shot along the rooftops, heading towards them at breakneck speed.

Before the aging Colonel could order his unit to raise their weapons, they had already arrived. The dry dirt kicked up around them as they appeared, almost skidding to a stop directly in front of the man Daniel had been using as an interpreter.

The woman he remembered just by the sight of those strange eyes. Had he ever seen eyes like those before, he couldn't tell for certain. He also recognised the tiger-like stencil on her mask. She held herself well. There was definitely the air of a leader about her, yet she seemed to pale by comparison to the man besides her. Whereas all the others in the group wore the same style of plated armour, this figure wore a somewhat ragged cloak, coupled with an imperiously white mask. What probably started as a white cloak was dotted with singes, slices, and blood splatter.

There was so much blood.

But that wasn't what worried Daniel. No, it was his eyes. At a glance they looked normal as any eyes would, but there was an unmistakable orange glow coming from them. It was almost like a...

"_Okay, okay, no time for pleasantries. Everyone bunch up, I've only got enough chakra to do this once."_ The gravelly voice of what Daniel could only assume was the commander of this unit cut through the atmosphere with a bored urgency.

"What did he say?" Carter asked as the masked soldiers all seemed to hurried form a tightly packed circle, leaving the three humans and one Jaffa in the open.

"_Come on, you too. I'm not going to leave innocent people to die here. Besides, from what my Vice-Captains told me, we have things to discuss."_ His voice called out to them once again. _"Oh, and try not to puke on my cloak."_

Whatever fears Daniel was having were put to the back of his mind when he heard the cries from behind them. It happened suddenly, but hundreds of people had come out of nowhere. The cloaked figure was seemingly defenceless, unmoving in his rigid stance as dozens of people moved to within attack range.

They were seconds away before they heard the defeaning 'tap-tap-tap' of gunfire. Daniel looked to see O'Neill on one knee, his eye looking down his red-dot sight as he fired a number of short bursts of bullets at the onrushing army. Teal'c wasn't far behind, firing a few bursts of orange energy from his staff. In a few seconds, a dozen or so enemies dropped to the ground. After their initial press, the enemies had halted at a safe distance, yet the Colonel still picked a few of them off.

"_Well, those weapons are a lot more effective than they look." _The unmistakably droll tones of the pony-tailed ninja wearing a 'deer-like' mask cut over the weapons fire.

"Hurry up Jack!" Daniel screamed as he began running towards the circle of soldiers.

"Yeah, yeah I know. He said something like 'come with me if you want to live', I get it." He yelled as he ejected the expended ammo clip from his P-90, jamming another one in there before firing once again. "But I'd like to show these guys we're not gunna be a pushover if they try anything!"

Carter and Teal'c seemed to follow Daniel, with O'Neill a couple of steps behind. With a small bit of jostling, they managed to get themselves into spaces within the cramped circle.

"_Hold on!" _"Hold on!" The female Vice-Captain screamed moments before Daniel translated.

From his position, Daniel could just about see the cloaked figure. It happened in a split second, but he saw the man go up in a golden blaze. His coat was on fire. His mask was on fire. Hell, his unkempt hair stood on end as if it was the flames, licking the atmosphere. The flames were so bright that he couldn't keep his eyes open, even with his glasses protecting him.

The roaring flames washed over him like a heat-wave, only from them to subside almost as quickly as they had appeared.

When he opened his eyes he was amazed.

All that he could see in front of him was a hardened wall of mud and stone. He had to crane his neck just to see the top. It came over him just as quick this time, but Daniel couldn't stop himself. As he wretched on the heavy-trodden grass, the others around him sighed as they backed away to a safe distance.

"Wow that felt worse than the first trip through the gate." Colonel O'Neill joked as he watched Daniel drop to his knees. Carter was doing a similar thing, but she had managed to keep her dignity. Teal'c was the same as always. He wasn't even sure if the Jaffa had ever been through something that could make him hurl.

Yet he was more concerned with the dozens of people that were now surrounding them. He noted that most of these ones didn't wear the strange masks, but there were still a couple who had them. A lot of them looked like kids, no older than eighteen at the most, and they all seemed to wear some form of flak-jacket.

Their approach was halted as the cloaked blonde raised his hand in the air. The signal was enough for the four dozen people surrounding them to simply, leave. Jack watched on blissfully unaware of what he was getting himself into.

"_Now, let's find somewhere nice and quiet to hear this crazy story of yours." _The white masked blonde noted as he stretched out his limbs. Daniel couldn't help but notice that he wasn't on fire, and that his eyes were an azure so blinding that it made him think twice about what he saw before.

* * *

**Author Note:** As I said, I don't know if I'll continue this or not, so it's dependent on the feedback I get. I just wanted to get it out of my brain for the time being. Also, you'll notice that it's an extra long chapter – also because I don't know if I'll continue. But yeah, there you have it.

There will be a back story to all of this, I can assure you. How come they're Japanese? What's the deal with enhanced humans? The serpent guards buried near the gate? What about the hidden laboratory with all the 'mission notes'? Does Teal'c know more than he's letting on? You have questions, I got answers. Haha.

Well, if you enjoyed it, reviews are always welcome. If you didn't, then you must have some literary taste. Don't forget to check out 'Shadow' and 'Darth Avarus: the Protector'.

Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2 & 3

**Disclaimer:** I'm not the owner of these franchises, okay. Naruto and Stargate would be so much worse if I made them. Whedon girls would be literally everywhere. I'd have an episode of Stargate where there was just a planet of Summer Glau's, and then...let's not go there.

**Author Note: **Yo! I've not posted in a while, obviously...and for that reason this chapter is loooonnnnnngggggggggggg, essentially **TWO** chapters. I know I don't post regularly, but I like to give people their imaginary money's worth when I do. Having said that I feel that there are elements of the chapter that drag out far too long, and I've cut them down but they're still too long. I have nothing else to say really, aside from this:

**Thank you!** That one chapter surpassed all expectations, as well as breaking almost all my records for a single chapter...by a long way. Just wow, thank you.

In addition to this, some of the reviews that people kindly took the time to post, man, words can't describe how happy it makes you feel when you read those kinds of things in reviews. I'm sure that many of you lovely readers whom follow my other stories know how much I struggle with both my writing, and my confidence. Reading things like that – however true they may be – does wonders for your mindset when you sit down to write once again. So if you ever see a writer you like struggling, reassure them. Just let them know that there are people out there who really enjoy what they write. And not to give up.

So thanks.

**Word Count:** 18,260

**WARNING**: There is some smut, because, well I wanted to and I never really have. Meaning it's also really shit, but meh.

Done.

* * *

+'Shinobi' Identification Certificate +

Name: Hyuga Hinata

Codename: 'Tora'

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Height: 5'7in

Rank/Title: Tokubetsu Jounin / Fukitaichou

Affiliation: _Konohagakure no Sato_

_Hyuga Clan_

_Allied Shinobi Forces_

_Sixth Division Spec Ops_

* * *

**Chapter 2:** The Long Road to a New World

Colonel Jack O'Neill was one of the first human beings to travel through the Stargate, attributed with awards that overshadowed most within Stargate Command. He was considered elite in interplanetary warfare. Nothing surprised him any longer, yet, at this time Jack was forcing himself not to let his jaw drop.

In the five minutes that had passed since arriving on the much friendlier side of the wall they had been ushered into a brisk walk in-formation. The scenery remained the same throughout; dense woodlands either side of the well-trodden path that hundreds of soldiers jogged by, heading towards the wall. They were armoured, kitted out in flak-vests and covered in pouches assumedly carrying those bizarre throwing knives. Some wore the same masks as those they'd have the pleasure of being killed by if they got out of line, but the majority did not. These people were organised, well-trained, and well-equipped. _'Give them some guns and they almost look like marines,'_ the aging Colonel thought on as he noted a group of hulking plated behemoths.

These 'ninja' seemed to have a standard uniform; the only notable difference was the colour of the vests that they wore. Yet these guys were completely different. Covered in armour from head-to-toe, each one of them seemed to tower above the 'normal' soldiers. Samurai was the first word that came into mind, though he couldn't help but notice the odd one or two with an animal-like helmet. He could see a hound, a bear...even a snake. It unnerved him, yet, at the same time neither Carter nor Teal'c made any remarks about the possibility of them being Goa'uld or Jaffa.

They appeared as awestruck as him.

Daniel was faring a bit better with it, but that was probably because he still felt a bit queasy from what could only be described as a human-made wormhole. One second they were stood on a coastline looking over an expanse of water towards a giant wall, an instant later and they were safe on the other side of the fortification.

At least, Jack thought there was no threat on this side of the wall. A few heated screams drew his attention away from the seemingly endless dirt road. Meteorites were what they looked like, three of them hurtling from the clouds at breakneck speed. They overshot the wall by a long way, passing directly over head. O'Neill's weapon was resting against his shoulder faster than he knew he was capable of, yet he quickly realised that all he could do was track its trajectory via the sight.

Amazingly, a wave of water burst from the tree canopy ahead, ensnaring the flames in an endless torrent. Even when the molten rock had cooled, the size of the searing boulder was large enough to cause serious damage at that speed. What appeared to be a solid stone pillar erupted from the sea of green, traversing a good hundred metres above the tallest landmark in view. Jack tracked the figure on top of the rising platform, noting the bizarre pink hue that sat atop their head.

The rifle dropped to his waist, dangling by the strap that was attached to his flak-vest. "Son of a bitch," he murmured openly, trying to wrap his head around what he'd just witnessed.

"T-that, that was unbelievable," Captain Carter concurred as she lowered her binoculars. "They just _punched _a meteorite...and the thing shattered into a thousand pieces."

"...And then they jumped off the platform and destroyed the other two with one punch," the colonel finished, rubbing his temples vigorously. The feat was impossible, frightening even. Yet what shook him up even more was that none of the masked soldiers around them so much as flinched at the sight. "Something tells me we're letting ourselves in for more than we can handle."

"Indeed," the monk-like figure added. There was something more...aloof about his tone than usual.

The woman with the strange eyes deterred him from his thoughts as she tugged on his bare arm, pulling him off the road. He was too busy looking at the fine rain of shattered rock that he didn't even notice the terrifying machines that were being pushed down the dirt track. They were almost as wide as the road, and as large as a tank, if not bigger. He counted fifteen before the train were long at his rear. One of the few times the greying man heard any words from the masked soldiers was when Daniel's new best friend with the thick ponytail replied to his comment on the beastly constructions. Apparently they were their version of siege weapons.

So far Jack was bordering on bewilderment, but what threw him over the edge at hurtling rate was when they reached a clearing, and watched a man _grow_ a five-story building from his hands. There were about six identical buildings – presumably barracks – and a larger building in the centre. It was the final straw for Jack.

"What the _hell _are you people?"

Sam and Daniel bristled as they turned to face their squad leader. Teal'c raised a curious eyebrow, and the eight masked figures all turned, unaware of the words, but due to the tone could surmise what he was saying. Surprise met the colonel when the mop of blonde laughed from the head of the pack.

"_He's one of a kind. There isn't any other living person that can do that," _he paused, _"Well, aside from me that is." _There was another hearty chuckle from behind the bleach-white mask as he walked away from the group. The others seemed to calm at his laughter. Clearly if the leader was happy then so too were his men. That was something that Jack could respect. As Daniel translated, Jack heard the same voice from up ahead.

"_Yamato-senpai,"_ the leader of this well-oiled unit called out. The figure admiring his handy work turned. He wore some form of headdress rather than a mask. It was more like a plated half-helm than anything. Adorning his torso was a green flak-vest. From this distance it could easily be mistaken for SGC standard trim.

They conversed as they walked closer together. O'Neill could hardly make out what they were saying, but he wouldn't have understood it anyway so he didn't really pay much attention. His thoughts were directed towards the area around them. Loose stone littered the breadth of the open area, ranging from the size of a pebble to that of a car engine.

To the far left of the buildings around a dozen soldiers were dancing between each other in pairs, at least from his position they looked like they were partaking in some form of ceremonial dance. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened off-world, though their movements were much faster than those of your standard human. But the cackle of lightning that leapt out of one of their hands, followed by the blaze of fire that streamed from his dancing partner made the situation a lot more understandable and confusing all at the same time.

Daniel was talking with the translator again. Despite being unable to understand a word the masked man said, his languid tone was enough for Jack to know he couldn't wait to be rid of his SG-1 teammate. It seemed like all four of SG-1 had taken more of an interest in the sparring than the conversation.

"Can you ask him about the energy-based weapons they are using? That definitely meets our mandate for acquiring technology." Carter asked as she stood at the side of the bandaged female, admiring the frankly brutal battle in the distance.

"Um, apparently they're not weapons." Daniel pawed at his glasses, taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaning the lenses as he spoke. "If I understood him correctly then those things are called 'Jutsu' and exist through your ability to use 'chakra'." He spoke in a way somewhere between dumbfounded and fascinated.

"I thought that chakra stuff was all 'body and mind' mumbo jumbo bullshit. You know, like Feng Sui, and conquering the 5lb steak-eating competition at O'Malley's. I'm sure there's a trick." The colonel chirped in, to a disapproving groan from Daniel.

"How can you be so narrow minded, Sir? After what we've been through it's entirely feasible that we could have come across a genetically evolved race of humans." The short-haired blonde complained.

"Oh come on, this is by far the weirdest situation we've been put in, and by hell am I going to just _believe _that these guys can just do these things without some trick or evil technology." The Colonel moaned as he took out his canteen. He'd only just noticed but it was really hot, even in the shade. Though he couldn't help but think it had something to do with the sizzling rocks that surrounded them.

"I'm sure we've come across weirder things on our travels than some super humans, Jack." Upon the shrugged response from his Colonel, Dr Jackson had his hand held in front of him, straightening a finger at every instance he spoke. "Well, there was the time we travelled back to 1969, or when you aged rapidly due to nanotechnology, or when we gated on board Apophis's Ha'tak that was on its way to earth, or the time we ended up being entertainment for people living in a virtual world –"

"Fun times," O'Neill reminisced over some of their less pleasant adventures.

"Don't forget the time when you had an ancient repository of knowledge downloaded into your brain and ended up meeting the Asgard –" Carter was cut off as Teal'c took over.

"I believe the time we defeated the Unas should also be included."

"Alright, alright. Come on T, not you too." O'Neill sighed as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, replacing the canteen in its rightful place. "Fine, I'll admit that we've had some weird ones, but this is just something else."

The pairs of eyes hidden beneath porcelain masks were darting from team member as they spoke. This unfamiliar language made things difficult. Their discussion was almost heated. They could've been planning an escape, or at least to cause some damage behind lines. That was why Hyuga Hinata had ordered them to be ready at any moment. It would be a blemish on the record of Alpha Squadron if four soldiers managed to cause any significant damage behind battle lines. Still, she was certain Naruto had made the right choice when he decided to bring them back to Konoha.

"_Tora, we're moving," _the call drew the Vice-Captain from her thoughts, looking over at the hulking figure of Omoi. He wasn't the largest shinobi she had ever seen, but he was the bulkiest in their unit. Still, he looked like a child compared to the behemoth stood beside him. This soldier or monk or whatever he was, he bore a mark on his forehead she was certain that she'd seen before, but she found herself unable to place it.

"_Hai," _she replied, noting that she had fallen behind the group by a couple of feet. Naruto was once again at the head, leading them to an empty spot in the clearing. Hinata heard him say 'stand back' before he began his flashy as ever routine. Fortunately he was in his ANBU gear for once, so there was no hopping around on his geta. Much to her dismay he was still hopping like an idiot, arms flailing, hair whipping, and that stupid 'yohohoho' laugh. Honestly, he was morphing into that perverted old man as he aged. She would have to draw a line when he started writing smutty novels. Her hand rose, slapping the porcelain mask whilst shaking her head. Yet, she couldn't help but smile beneath it.

The group watched as the tattered white cloak went up in golden flames. Peculiar markings covered his back and curved around the crook of his neck. His hair danced like fire, stood up on end like a warriors helm. With a quick flick of the wrist he forced his open palm into the dried earth. It only took a moment, and strands of wood bloomed from the surface merging together to form a building before their very eyes.

"Holy Hannah," Carter yelped as she watched on. Daniel remained silent, as too did Jack, for once.

Probably only standing at two stories, the building was dwarfed by the uniform blocks that surrounded it, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in outright flamboyance. Whereas the barracks looked dull, lifeless, void of any flair, this looked like it had been styled by a five-year old high on sugar. Finely carved humanoid pillars stood at either side of the large oak double-door, seemingly holding a pair of blades in a cross pattern in some form of archway. Inscribed onto the hollow in the centre of the blades was a large pattern, that Daniel noted stood for 'six'. Further pillars were erected on the extremities of the building. The window ledges curved at the edges in a spiral pattern, one arching towards the sky, the other towards the dirt. Everywhere you could see there was ebony trim intertwined with orange. Lots of orange.

"_Home sweet home," _the bandaged woman sighed as she walked towards the door, already uncoiling the material from the tip of her cranium. Shortly followed by most of the others, the woman swung open the double-doors, and disappeared into the darkness within.

SG-1 lingered, admiring this marvel as if it were a Wonder. "Sweet," the Colonel chimed as Carter watched on, pacing across the breadth of the outer wall seemingly analysing the structure.

"How? I-I don't understand how something like this could exist. This defies all the laws of – of well, humanity." Her questions were met with nods of approval from Daniel, whom could only begin to comprehend what he had seen.

They travelled the universe on a daily basis, and sure, they had seen some bizarre feats. But most of them were based around technologies that were far beyond their understanding. This...this, it was beyond simply labelling something as 'technologically based'. There were no gimmicks, no Goa'uld hand-devices, no artefacts or shields or anything that Captain Carter could imagine.

"I'm starting to agree with you, Jack," the mop-haired archaeologist stated as he eyed the blonde mane bowing as if he was accepting an encore. The woman with the peculiar eyes walked over to him, punched him on the back of the head, and called him an 'idiot' in their native tongue.

"See? What did I tell you, this place is _weird_." With a rather satisfied smirk, the Colonel took another gulp from his canteen.

"_Oi, Antlers?" _The eerie white mask seemed to say as it looked over to the last figure just about to enter the distasteful building.

The dark pony-tail shifted awkwardly, looking back towards his commanding officer. Having only heard his codename for the first time, Dr Jackson couldn't help but laugh. He'd been too preoccupied before to properly look at the mask, but the pattern on it did somewhat resemble a deer, with two small protrusions coming off the top that fitted perfectly over his scraped-back hair.

"_I gave up a place in the Daimyo's personal guard for this shit," _he muttered beneath his laboured breaths. Turning away from the building, he returned to the remaining two masked warriors, completely ignored them and continued walking. _"You too, hurry up." _'Antlers' called out.

"He wants us to follow." Daniel surmised as he carried on shortly behind him. Carter followed, with Teal'c tailing behind. Colonel O'Neill lingered the longest, offering the blonde and the woman a long stare before shrugging his shoulders and carrying on in formation. The Captain and Vice-Captain took up the rear.

These buildings were larger than they looked, seemingly dragging their ever increasing journey further and further from the gate. Eventually they reached their destination, the circular tower that stood at the rear of the barracks. It stood well above the other buildings, and much greater time had gone into the detailing than the others, yet it was still made from the same bland, untreated wood as the others.

The door was ajar, guarded by two soldiers wearing full combat gear - green trim - like so many of whom they passed. One of the soldiers had a long, dark, greasy pony-tail, and said something to the masked man as soon as he saw him. Cautiously, they gave the members of SG-1 a glance, before saying something to the two at the rear. Daniel was sure it went beyond protocol, as these two clearly knew the masked ninja.

The stairwell spiralled, but it was by no means narrow. It curled around the external walls, with all corridors leading into the central spire as they climbed. They must've reached eight stories before reaching the desired corridor. The place was pretty deserted, though that was almost expected given the number of people they had crossed paths with on their walk from the wall. The corridor carried on until they reached an arched doorway.

"Alright, we're here. I'm not the kind of person that would leave someone in this position with weapons, but I'd rather not piss you off. At the minute we're potential allies, not enemies. So, if you could refrain from using them then that would be great." Zero, one of the five Captains of the Sixth Division, spoke true, with a sheepish grin beneath his mask and...

"Yeah, yeah, I get ya. Look, we're not gunna start any trouble as long as we don't get ourselves thrown in some jail cell or something. It's amazing how many times –"

"Jack," Daniel Jackson butted in, somewhat puzzled.

"What, Danny? Can't you see I'm talking here? If I don't give them some assurances they're never gunna trust us."

"...Sir, that's not the point." Captain Carter replied awkwardly, stone-faced as she spoke.

"What are you talking about? All I'm doing is talking to...talking...oh." The blonde male laughed as the aging soldier scratched his head, glancing to the blonde woman in full combat gear. "Carter, I don't know Japanese, right?"

"Um, no sir." The woman answered, almost disbelieving her commander's words.

"Colonel O'Neill, I believe that he is in fact speaking English." The hulking figure of the sole alien on SG-1 affirmed, somewhat perplexed.

"Yeah, thanks for that, T." O'Neill turned back to the masked captain. "So, care to explain why you couldn't just speak English _before_, it would've saved so much time." He snarled angrily.

Sheepishly, the glimmering blue eyes flicked across the gobsmacked faces, scratching at his mane before pushing down on the door handle, briskly walking into the room.

"I'll tell you inside," Zero called back as he headed for the only sign of furnishings within the large drum-like room.

* * *

Aside from some torch sconces that held fluttering flames on the extremities of the room, a solitary table could be found. At the head sat a radiant beauty. Jack was fairly certain she was early thirties, tops. Long blonde hair shaped around an unblemished face, with other attributes the Colonel would rather not speculate on. He had to look twice to be sure, but she had what appeared to be a tattoo on her forehead, so much like the millions of Jaffa that openly worshipped the Goa'uld, yet, it was no mark he had seen before.

This dull lighting was becoming troublesome, Jack noted, especially when another three people suddenly appeared from the darkness, slowly advancing from the rear wall. A fourth masked soldier materialised out of thin air on the far side of the female at the table. The man he recognised from outside with the ability to grow buildings walked to the chair on the near side of the woman, whilst another figure, with elegant pink hair stood to attention behind her. By his estimations, the 'woman' was no older than eighteen, yet carried herself in the manner of the others around the room despite her lack of stature. He couldn't help but think that this diminutive girl was the person he saw minutes ago. The final figure wore a mask also, with their body all but covered by a gray cloak. They seemed to be of similar height to Carter, towering over the pink-haired girl.

Teal'c gave a subtle clack of the butt of his staff as he came to a halt at the side of his superior. They were surrounded. Their captors-come-saviours were behind them, and the figures in front of them were ready to strike, their hands firmly placed near the weapons holsters that were placed prominently around their thighs. Even the two whom were sat down couldn't be discounted. Yet he noted the woman – clearly the leader – held a disinterested gaze.

O'Neill only realised the gravity of the situation as the blonde mane gently closed the doors behind them. There were no other exits. No windows, nor any cover. Momentary darkness eclipsed them as the torches almost died out, before a fresh gust of wind crept in, reigniting them once again.

The silence was deafening. The only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat pounding away on his eardrums. Jack felt like one wrong footstep and the end would be near, for all of his team.

"Seal!" A voice uttered from behind SG-1. Simultaneously all four members of the squad turned. The blonde figure strolled casually towards the table, clapping the dirt from his hands as he walked. _"That should do it. The room is sound-proofed. All ocular techniques will be ineffective, and I have clones stationed on this floor and those above and below. Now all I need to do is sort this language issue out. How about some lights, Tsunade?"_

"Oh come on, he's speaking Japanese again!" O'Neill lamented as the room suddenly brightened up upon command from the leader.

No one seemed to intercept him as he headed for a chair so he carried on, dumping his P-90 onto the space in front of him whilst slumping into the rather uncomfortable chair. His attempt to place his weapon in view did not create the desired response. In fact, it did nothing. A sub-machinegun was a fearful weapon, especially in some backwater planets where technology was all but non-existent. Not one of them even flinched. Daniel and Carter followed closely behind, mimicking the actions of the commanding officer.

Teal'c remained statuesque, attracting even more glances from the others. The blonde woman at the head of the table was eying him suspiciously, even more so than he had come to expect on these off-world expeditions. Two of the masked soldiers passed the rigid Jaffa – the strange-eyed woman and the man with the pony-tail – filling two of the vacant seats at the table.

It all happened so fast.

Caught unawares, Zero found himself momentarily caught in the grasp of the bulky male before being hauled to the floor. The two figures still standing were either side of the hulking alien faster than any of SG-1 could react. The pink-haired woman knelt directly in front of Teal'c, gripping onto his forearm tightly enough for him to roar in agony, whilst the hooded gray cloak stood over him, the tip of a sword pressing into the nape of his neck.

"_Release him!" _They screamed as the colossal figure straddled the masked man in the ragged cloak, his hand clasped firmly around his neck.

"T! What the hell are you doing?" O'Neill shouted heatedly. By now he was half way out of his seat, one hand firmly held on the back of the chair whilst the other reached for his weapon.

"Sakura. Ino. Release him." A familiar voice called.

Stood next to O'Neill was a mane of blonde hair, reaching casually towards the table to stop the aging man. Teal'c looked towards the voice, utterly shocked as he saw the man whom he sat on, choking the life out of. He felt the blade rise, and the grip of the woman's hand loosen as he looked back down to the floor. The 'body' was nothing more than a chair.

"T, are you trying to get us killed?" O'Neill lambasted, releasing his hand from his sub-machinegun as he left the table, along with Carter in the aid of the ailing Jaffa. By proxy Daniel had left his seat too, lingering away from the soldiers now mostly seated around the table, watching.

"It's okay," The blonde reassured, as he began walking around the table slowly, casually placing his open palm onto the shoulders of the three seated soldiers, notably missing out his own team and the two figures walking back to their station. "The thing inside you alerted you to it, so you thought you'd attack me when my defences were down, right?"

Teal'c dragged himself onto his knees. His right forearm was searing with pain as he placed it onto the wooden floor as a means of leverage, but he fought through the pain despite the notable grimace. By the time the blonde had finished talking he'd found his seat.

"How did you know about that?" Teal'c queried uneasily. The pain was far worse than he initially thought. Even the larval Goa'uld inside him was having trouble making repairs. There was a definite fracture.

"Well, for starters I can hear you talking to each other, let alone being able to feel its hatred. Plus my Vice-Captain told me about it when she came to meet me before we saved you." Zero replied evenly, whilst tapping the shoulder of the woman beside him.

Teal'c knelt begrudging his actions whilst contemplating what kind of technique allowed him to escape his grasp. "My symbiote warned me of an external entity being forced into my body, one which you placed."

"What the hell are you doing listening to that damn snake?" The Colonel lashed.

"It may be the spawn of the Goa'uld false gods, but in its larval state, I am its only chance of survival. If something happens to my body that it cannot stop, it will notify me as a means of self-preservation." The Jaffa answered fairly. Even though he harboured such hatred against the alien race, he couldn't help but listen to it under such circumstances.

"Oh, I _knew _this was too good to be true," Jack sighed. "What have you done to us?" He gazed sharply at the blank masked shinobi.

"The same thing I have done both to myself and to the people you see before you. It is the means in which that we are now communicating freely between one another." Whilst he was talking, Zero placed his hand against his mask. Symbols appeared one after another on the bleached material, before it seemed to jump into his palm. He lifted it for all to see, before allowing it to travel back up the sleeve of his cloak, disappearing once it reached the mask. "Trust me, it's completely harmless."

O'Neill was torn between helping Teal'c to his feet and watching the strange insect-like ink, eventually managing some way to do both. He and Daniel ambled towards the chairs. The mountainous Jaffa was more injured than they'd imagined, though it was almost understandable when he gauged in who injured him. She may only look like a harmless teenager, but she had a strength that was worrying to say the least.

They had just about managed to help Teal'c into a chair before Carter ended the silence. "It's a neural implant...designed to stimulate the area of the brain that deals with language. We've been trying to create something like this for years with nano-technology, and you've done it with some writing."

Naruto almost felt abashed at that remark. "It's not 'some writing', it's a seal. Countless shinobi throughout our world specialise in sealing techniques. Many forms exist in the different elemental nations, though there aren't many who can use it in such a capacity," he paused. "You have a good eye for what it's actually doing."

"Thank you," The blonde male's tone was almost enough to make Carter blush, but she held it in as the woman sat beside him inclined her head in his direction.

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on, let me get this straight," O'Neill started, trying to wrap his head around it. "You put something into our _brains_?"

Sheepishly, Zero scratched at his mane, losing his hand somewhere in the forest of blonde, "Well, yeah. You wanted to be able to talk, right? There's no way we'd be able to communicate fully though 'Daniel's' butchering of our language." Carter smirked as a stunted cackle came from beneath the mask of the dark-haired male.

"Enough!" Tsunade's patience had reached its limits. "Zero, what the hell am I doing here? Who are these people?" She had sat in the lurch far too long. She'd been dragged from a tactical deployment briefing for this.

The masked Neo-Sannin cleared his throat, before his demeanour suddenly shifted. "Well, you're here because of what I found in the wastes of my families homeland."

Those sharp blue eyes bore into her, searching tirelessly for the slightest response, to which he was surprised to find her lips tense. She was anxious, grimacing at the loose accusation, though the others didn't seem to pick up on it... all aside from Hinata. She was watching the altercation intently through her eagle eyes.

He exhaled slowly, before continuing once again, "...and they're here because they suddenly appeared in the middle of the main square right as we were about to retreat. I have absolutely no idea who they are aside from that they're not shinobi, and they speak a language I've never heard of. Oh, and the guy who tried to kill me has something in his stomach that looks like a gruesome snake...and you know how much I hate snakes." At the mention of the adolescent Goa'uld, Naruto couldn't help but shiver.

"Are you sure the seal is in place on this room?" The Hokage questioned, as she leant forwards onto the table with her head resting in her open palms, watching the blank-masked shinobi acutely.

"Certain," he replied instantly.

"Very well," Tsunade sighed. "Zero, Tora, Ino. I want all of you to analyse their following answer."

"Hai," The three shinobi answered in unison.

Beneath the tiger-like mask, veins sprouted from the eyes of Hyuga Hinata, forcing chakra into her blood-line limit as she began intricately analysing every single detail of the four soldiers sat across from her. It was amazing to see, but none of them had any form of chakra coils. Even the non-shinobi populace had chakra coils, they were merely underdeveloped. There was something weird though – aside from the snake swimming in the pouch where the monk's stomach would be. The aging male was different to the other two 'humans'. A discrepancy in his genetic makeup perhaps, she wasn't too sure...

Whereas the activation of her Byakugan went unnoticed, the golden hue that formed in the two eye slots in the bleached mask caught a couple of odd stares from SG-1. O'Neill watched on, ready to point out that the guy was clearly a Goa'uld, but neither Carter nor Teal'c made any form of recognition to the matter. The figure drenched in a gray cloak made no discernible changes other than holding out the open palms of their hands in front of them.

"Where are you from, and how did you four get here?"

The question was as simple as that, and the Colonel began to open his mouth before he was stopped by the short-haired woman. "We're SG-1, a team of explorers from the planet Earth. We travelled here through a device known as a 'Stargate'. It is a piece of technology that can be used to create wormholes that allows for instantaneous travel between different planets -"

"Big, big ring thingy that kind of shoots out when you turn it on. It looks like an ocean inside a tin can." Jack cut in, holding his hands aloft when he spoke, widening them as he tried to describe the Stargate.

The Taichou and Fukitaichou gave each other a bemused glance. It sounded almost exactly like the painting they had stumbled upon when searching through the underground research facility.

"They're telling the truth, though I highly doubt that they're explorers considering the weapons they're carrying."

Daniel rose to that challenge. "Um, actually, I am an archaeologist. As you've guessed I also act as a translator." He removed his glasses as he spoke, taking out a grubby handkerchief to give them a quick wipe.

"Not a good one," Shikamaru's droll tones washed over him, to the amusement of Hinata and Carter, even the Colonel almost managed a smirk.

"Well, I've not spoken your language in about five years so I'm a tad rusty." Daniel laughed ashamedly whilst replacing his glasses. "I'm Dr Daniel Jackson. This is Captain Samantha Carter, Colonel Jack O'Neill, and the friendly guy is Teal'c. As you've somehow managed to point out, he is what is known as a Jaffa, a genetically altered human subjugated by an evil race of aliens who enslave the majority of the galaxy."

"And what, you're all human's like us?" Yamato asked.

"Well, I'd hardly say that. We're normal humans. You guys are like super-humans. We've been to one-hundred different worlds and you guys are the first ones who could run faster than a train, or grow buildings, or destroy meteorites with a friggin' punch –" O'Neill added as he listed off some of the ridiculous feats he'd already seen so far.

"You saw that?" The pink-haired woman laughed awkwardly, blushing at the mention of her earlier action.

"Okay, enough," the Hokage sighed, wishing she had some fine sake to drag her through this. "As of now I'm issuing a gagging order. Until I see fit to release it this information is confined to the people within this room. And lose the masks. I'm starting to feel nauseous."

She gave the members of Alpha Squadron a coy stare, watching as they straightened up. Raising his hand, Shikamaru was the first to remove the porcelain mask, revealing an unexpectedly full beard, shaped into a point off the tip of his chin. His calculating eyes rested above heavy bags, laden with sleep deprivation. Jack noted that he looked comfortably older than the pink-haired girl, but nowhere near the age of the woman at the head of the table.

Next was the Vice-Captain. Her slender fingers curled around the dip of her mask, raising it apprehensively until it uncovered her face. She looked so young, younger so than the woman with the strength to all but crush Teal'c's arm. Her white pupil-less eyes looked even stranger when viewed in contrast to her milky complexion. She was beautiful, with a regal air about her, yet there was something that drew the gazes of SG-1. Hinata began to chew at her lip, feeling their eyes bore into the mark that blemished her face.

The scar crept from beneath her chin, beyond her lips and across her cheek. The skin was dark, making it all the more noticeable with her milky flesh. Yet she smiled as she felt a firm hand squeeze around her thigh beneath the desk. She glanced to her right as the unblemished mask tilted towards her. Those eyes were enough to make her forget her wounds.

The last to remove his mask was the Captain. The porcelain clattered on the wood as he practically threw it onto the table, offering up his features for full inspection. There was little-to-no facial hair, aside from some peculiar whisker-like markings across his cheeks. They could've been hair, or birth marks, or scars for all the Colonel knew. The mane of golden locks ruffled as he ran his hands through it. His features were remarkable, that much Carter could account for as she gazed in his direction. He grinned awkwardly.

Despite the man looking in his mid-twenties, it became apparent under closer inspection that he was no older than...

"You're a bunch of kids!" Jack yelled, torn between anger and astonishment.

"I'd hardly call us kids, were all older than nineteen; we've fought in this war for almost five years. If anything we're veterans. You should see some of the rookies." Naruto defended. "I'm Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, Captain of the unit who saved you from a slow and horrible death." He added with some authority, before glancing to his left. "This is Hyuga Hinata, my Vice-Captain, and Nara Shikamaru, widely regarded as the greatest mind in the army. The one in the cloak and mask is Yamanaka Ino, Vice-Commander of Konoha's Intelligence Division, and to her left is Haruno Sakura, aide to the Hokage and Chief Medic. We were all in the same academy class together and are all nineteen or twenty.

"The guy sat next to you is Yamato, Leader of the defence forces, and the masked guy is the Captain Commander of our Black Ops unit...if I told you his name he would probably kill you. The glamorous woman at the head of the table is the Hokage, Senju Tsunade, leader of Konoha and one of the five Kages that lead our army." He paused with a glint in his eye, "But don't get suckered in, she's a hell of a lot older than you think."

"Idiot," the girl besides him moaned as she clipped him around the head, as the lady Hokage seethed, fighting against smashing the table in half. A stunted laugh came from the cloaked woman, and a few smirks crept onto the uncovered faces.

"We're not seriously going to just accept that they're from another planet, right? I can't acknowledge that without any form of quantifiable data to work with." Shikamaru's scepticism cut through the atmosphere. To just sit and listen to such a story without any sources to back up their claims was alien to him.

"It's okay, Shikamaru. I can vouch for them." Tsunade said rather ominously, cupping both hands around the imaginary bottle of sake sat on the table.

"You can?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that, as did many of the others.

"Yes," she breathed, "I've used the ancestral ring before."

Silence ensued.

"You've what?!" Naruto screamed at the revelation.

Tsunade relaxed into her chair, seemingly eying up these 'explorers', her gaze stopping at the figure furthest down the table, Teal'c.

"There is a history to this planet that was forgotten well before the time of the Sage of the Six Paths. 'God's' who roamed the planet, enslaving the people and experimenting on them to try and create the perfect being, protected by their armies of metallic warriors -"

"Oh boy, here we go." O'Neill broke in, throwing his arms flamboyantly in the air. "They're called _Goa'uld_. They're the assholes who call themselves 'God' and use the human race as incubators for their children, and enslave the rest. We've spent the last four years fighting them."

Tsunade slowed, measuring the words. It was a surprise to her that the greying man talked so openly, and so venomously about them considering that one of their team was a Jaffa. "Our paths have crossed before also. On some of our journeys we traded blows with these 'Jaffa' and their Goa'uld overseers." She looked clearly into the monk's eyes, "You, I have seen before. You may not remember it because it was over thirty years ago, but we have battled before. No doubt your serpent armour is hidden beneath that monk-like facade, First-Prime."

Everyone's eyes seemed to focus on the ailing man at the end of the table. His arm still ached, yet it did not show. He gave the woman a long stare. She only looked in her thirties, far too young to have crossed paths. Thirty years ago he wasn't even Apophis' First Prime. Master Bra'tac still held that post. That could only mean that she was aware of the significance of his golden mark.

Rather than removing his cloak, he raised his arm to the side of his neck, fiddling with something that caused a whirring noise. The man's face disappeared beneath a solid metal helm, shaped into a snakes head.

"Okay, well that definitely looks familiar." Naruto shivered as a spoke, his voice almost breaking as the man pressed on the button once again, unveiling is bald cranium.

"T, don't hold out on us now." O'Neill pressed, anxious of this revelation. It was no surprise Teal'c had past involvements with other human worlds. After all it wasn't the first time someone had remembered him on one of their missions.

Belatedly, he adhered to O'Neill's lax order. "I believe I know what this planet is." Teal'c's eyes lowered to his crushed arm before glancing back up at the blonde woman at the head of the table. "After countless years of battling the humans known in our ranks as 'Elementals', one of our units caught the gate address of their world. The false-God Apophis sent a fleet of Ha'tak vessels to the planet, but they did not return. An entire legion of Serpent Guards was sent through the _Chaapa-ai_, but we lost contact. Shortly afterwards we tried to re-established a connection, but the dialling sequence failed to initiate. We did not cross paths with them again."

Judging by his abrupt end, Teal'c either had nothing more to say, or that was all he knew. Silence filled the room once again, followed by looks of fear and bemusement from many of the Konoha shinobi. Space ships, travel to other worlds. It was all so unrealistic in the minds of these sedentary beings. Noting that the Jaffa had finished when he rested back into his chair, Tsunade took that as her cue to continue.

"They took the forces by surprise in the middle of the night. In the ten years the gate was in operation, not one person had arrived that wasn't already from the village. Hundreds came through the gate and swarmed the city. Most of the civilians were massacred, and the small shinobi force managed to take out the majority of the invaders before they succumbed. The few survivors that managed to get to the sole ship at the dock remembered seeing this bright flash of light in the sky. Moments later the entire village was on fire.

"A few days later and the Third had mobilised an assault force just to make sure. When we got there, nothing was left. The city was in ruins, the gate buried. None of the Uzumaki shinobi survived, and none of us knew how to open the main command centre. We made a decision to leave the gate buried, and left the room locked. The research that remained in the above ground labs was seized on our retreat. It just so happened that on our return, a force of enemy shinobi was on their way to attack Konoha, and we took the initiative. We defeated their army and used their deaths as a cover for the incident." She finished, summarising the incident as briefly as she could.

The stories of Tsunade's departure from Konoha were not false...nor were they wholly accurate. It was true that she left Konoha shortly after the death of her fiancé, Katou Dan, but she did not disappear, not truly. Hiruzen sent her to the Land of Whirlpools to participate in the daily S-rank missions that took place, missions so secret that only four people in the entire village knew the full extent of the struggles of man. Her fear of blood started with Dan's death, but it reached its climax throughout the two years she participated in the missions.

"How? How after all this time could something like this remain hidden?" Naruto snapped, dragging the Hokage from her unpleasant memories.

"Only a select few Konoha Shinobi knew about the operation. The area within Uzu was cordoned off from the public and most of the research was done out of sight. Essentially we worked like ANBU, except, we carried out missions on other planets." She replied dutifully.

"So, what was the purpose of your operation then?" O'Neill asked after listening intently to the story.

"Well, I assume the same as yours; explore, find technologies that would benefit us over our immediate enemies, and search for significant threats." She stated, still searching for an imaginary bottle of sake. She hadn't told a living soul about this in thirty years, not even Jiraiya or Shizune.

"Yep, that sounds pretty much like our mandate. Though it's the first time we've met a group of humans with a similar outlook." O'Neill paused, "They're either so advanced they want nothing to do with us, or they're living in the dark ages."

"You know the Tollan are justified in their stance, Jack. They don't feel that we could be trusted with their technology due to what happened on Earth." Daniel butted in, to the surprise of Tsunade.

"Tollan," she breathed, gazing towards the ceiling momentarily. "We've met. And I understand your reservations about them. They were underwhelmed in our desire to attain weapon's technologies due to the warring state of our planet. However, they did introduce us to electricity and offer us updated communications."

"Huh, that sounds overly generous of them," he mused as he looked at the woman clearly deep in thought.

"We tended to find that most worlds we visited were forthcoming when they saw our abilities."

"You used your abilities as a means to intimidate?" Daniel accused.

"Is that not the same tactic your commander attempted by placing his weapon on the desk so poignantly? He made an active attempt to show us their capabilities in our escape, and then placed it on the table so that we would hold back from doing anything untoward against you." Shikamaru spoke, his eyes locked on Daniel.

Sheepishly, Jack scratched at the greying streak above his ear, remaining silent, but inwardly contemplating how this man saw through his action. "Look, we're not gunna harm you, alright? We came here by accident. Then we were going to just turn around and go back home after you turned up, but the DHD wasn't with the gate."

Tsunade listened to the words, curious about the term 'DHD'. Considering they were talking about the gate then they were mostly likely talking about...

"The dialling device is situated underground in a hidden command room directly beneath the ancestral ring. There is no way to get to it unless you know the correct sealing sequence." Tsunade gave an explanation as to the missing device, and ultimately why SG-1 was stranded.

"What about the other gate? The only reason we ended up here was because we got diverted from the other gate." Daniel spouted, trying to glean as much information as he could from this debriefing.

"Other gate?" Tsunade pondered, "Yes, I do remember there being talk of translations saying as much, but we never found it. We searched the entire continent." The blonde Hokage confirmed.

"Well, I can get you inside the command centre. Hinata and I swept through it before the army appeared. There were plenty of devices and things down there, but they were too big for me to take. I did pick up a fair bit of the research though –" The Sixth Division Captain said as he removed a number of scrolls from beneath his cloak. From a burst of smoke, a mountain of books larger than an average person took form. "I didn't get all of it though so I was planning a solo retrieval mission anyway." He stated, looking at the masked man for the first time, rather than the woman at the head of the table.

"Look, this is completely beyond me. I don't even know what I'm doing here." The aging man sighed, clearing his throat beneath his mask. Naruto diverted his attention to the woman, but was interrupted as she tried to answer.

"Part of why I accepted coming here without any fuss is because I wanted to meet your leader and offer an alliance. As you can see, we're armed to the teeth because we've made some pretty big enemies on our adventures, and judging by what we've seen so far you're more than capable of being a military asset."

Those at the head of the table seemed taken aback by those words. An alliance with an alien race of human beings seemed a little too farfetched, even for the nature wielding shinobi at the table.

"Interesting proposal, I must say. However, I'm in no position to speak for my entire planet, so I must think on this." That was all that the lady Hokage had to say on the matter, before standing for what felt like the first time in days. "Naruto, why did you call everyone else here?"

"The Captain-Commander is here because I wanted to request a solo mission. Ino's here in case we needed her abilities, and I asked for Sakura because I want these guys tested. Yamato, I've got no idea what he's doing here. I just assumed you asked for him to stay." He laughed awkwardly, looking at the terrifying stare of his former teacher.

Tsunade nodded, saying nothing as she headed for the door. Yamato gave Naruto one of those stares. Something caught in the youngster's throat as he caught on the gaze, causing him to cough as the defence force leader took his leave, along with Ino who simply gave a nod. The masked ANBU Commander gave no inclinations as he disappeared before their eyes in a whirl of leaves, leaving only Sakura.

"Wait, what do you mean by you want us _tested_? We're not diseased or anything." Jack moaned as he looked at the blonde Captain.

"I'm sure you'd do the same if we'd just appeared on your planet. It's not every day you meet aliens." Naruto replied with a sparkle in his eye. Carter gave a nod of agreement, as did the floppy haired archaeologist. "Sakura, I leave them in your capable hands. Oh, and Antlers, go with them."

"Chaperone duty again?" Shikamaru sighed in protest.

"Put it this way; if you decline, I'll tell Temari about that girl from the Second Division that was flirting with you in the bar a few weeks ago." Naruto words were met with a dead stare from the ponytailed man.

"Exactly, _she_ was flirting with _me_."

"But, Shikamaru-kun, you let her do it." The tones that came from the woman in between them were sickly sweet. SG-1 had been made aware fairly quickly about the nature of this woman, despite her beauty. This innocent act seemed to scare the bearded soldier, to the point that he didn't even reply. He sat there for a moment, before picking himself up from the chair, mysteriously disappearing in his own shadow. Laughter ensued from the three shinobi remaining in the room.

"Sweet," the Colonel stated as he watched the man fade into the darkness. "That could be so handy around the SGC," he mused, much to the dismay of Carter.

"Who's 'Temari'?" Daniel asked quietly.

"His wife," Hyuga Hinata's response sparked further laughter. "Trust me she's not someone you want to piss off."

After the laughter subsided, the pink-haired teen ushered SG-1 towards the door, and out into the corridor, leaving the Sixth Division Taichou and Fukitaichou to their pile of books. Quickly and quietly, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto began organising them into piles small enough to fit into his sealing scrolls.

* * *

"You know, we could've just stayed in the tower," a droll tone echoed in the well-lit room, "It's not like anyone would have used it. And you already had the security covered."

The voice – bordering on annoyance – received no answer to which the woman's head could only rise from the book that rested across her lap. She never really understood how Naruto could grow a building from scratch with electrical wiring and even glass windows already incorporated into the design, but it made the task of reading much, much easier. The teenage Vice-Captain had chosen to sit cross-legged on the bed, resting with her back against the wall, positioned perfectly between the lamp on the bedside table, and the final rays of sunlight creeping through the window.

An hour had passed since leaving that dreaded meeting, and all she did in that time was read. She was already skimming through the third binding of mission reports. Fortunately she'd taken a small pile full of much thinner materials, and picking through the important information wasn't proving too difficult. Everything that could be gleaned from the aged parchments only verified what had come from the aliens, and from the lady Hokage herself.

It was baffling to say the least. Most of the accounts made the Goa'uld out to be more power hungry than Sasuke, or more inexplicably twisted than Orochimaru. The more she read, the greater the feeling became that her whole life was somehow a lie. The reports painted a picture that she really didn't want to see.

And what was more worrying were the vessels that they supposedly _flew _around in. _'Imagine the largest galley you have ever come across in your life, and then times it by one hundred. Then picture it floating in the sky above Konoha, large enough that it could block out the sun beneath the entire village.' _That scared her a little. Sure, these Jaffa and the other humans didn't seem like much of a challenge. Despite the destructive power of their weapons, she was certain even the rookie Genin could beat them with their limited scope of Ninjutsu, though they may struggle in hand-to-hand combat. They may not be able to match the speed of Alpha squad, but from the looks on their faces and the way their shoulders were burdened, she could tell they were experienced soldiers.

But what could a shinobi possibly do against a floating battleship that could destroy an entire city in moments? It wasn't the only question that came up in her research, but it was the one that stayed in her head the longest. The only saving grace was that she'd never seen one in real life.

"Are you even listening to me?" She sighed tiredly as she remembered where she was, shutting the book and staring intently into the blonde hair sat at the desk in the corner of the room.

She had barely raised her head from the notebooks in an hour, but even she was amazed at how many of the books that her Captain had gotten through. There was half-a-dozen leather-bound books strewn on the floor, with another in front of his nose, and a pile of ten more sat on the desk. What annoyed her more was that she knew for a fact that the room next door had at least five Kage-Bunshin doing the exact same thing.

"Naruto," she called, again greeted by silence. For a moment she contemplated leaving him be, or at the very least throwing one of the books at his head, but instead she chose to slide off the bed and slowly walk towards him.

The plated-armour was gone, so too was the mask, though the undergarments remained. She'd kicked off her combat sandals somewhere near the door, leaving her with binding around her feet tucked into the loosely fitted dark-trousers she'd chosen for the mission. The mesh bodice she wore was more like a leotard than a top, covering her upper arms and torso, and disappearing beneath the waist line of the trousers. Her milky skin contrasted perfectly with the darkened fishnet material, also highlighting the wrapping she wore across her breasts. It constricted her greatly, but she found it was more beneficial to her combat abilities to do so.

Her fingers cut gently through his golden locks, tracing his jaw line as she rested her chin on his broad shoulder. The loose strands of hair tickled her cheek as she finally found his attention. It didn't surprise her when he flinched at the sudden contact, he'd clearly got lost in his own world. Her lips curled as she felt soft fingers creeping up her neck, slowly tracing the outline of her scar before cupping her cheek. Even though it happened so long ago, the skin was still far more sensitive.

It was an ugly thing, yet Naruto treated it like he would any other part of her. He caressed it, loved it, kissed it almost as often as he would her lips, or her forehead, or her breasts. It was a horrible reminder of what she had lost, but he had a way of making her forget.

"I'm sorry," he whispered quietly, "I kinda got lost in all of this." Without any warning he pushed himself up from the chair, making sure not to remove his hand from her cheek.

Behind closed doors she always smiled. Always. And it was a smile that made Naruto's heart burn with fiery passion. Effortlessly he bent down as he tilted her head, kissing her scar, before delicately pressing his lips against hers. It had only been a week-or-two, but it felt like a lifetime, even more so when he felt her lips pushing back.

The longer their lips lingered, the more involved the pale-skinned beauty became. It was an unconscious trait, but she liked to bite Naruto's lower lip to slow down their actions and catch her breath. Often it had the adverse effect. Before she knew it all she could see was the ceiling, until his lips were on hers again. The kunoichi could feel his thighs squeezing around her curvaceous hips, arms held firmly against the mattress as she elicited the gentlest of moans as this time he bit her lip.

Struggling, Hinata managed to free her hands, but all she cared about was unbinding the shoulder clasps to the ANBU Captain's chest-plate. Naruto assisted by pulling it away from his torso and throwing it to the wayside leaving him in almost matching garments to her, except the mesh body-suit he wore had no sleeves. His arms were lean, but as he tensed at the touch of his beloved's fingers clawing at the mesh shirt, the knotted muscle could be seen in the light. Despite her struggles, the former heiress could only lift the shirt up to his shoulders. She gripped the material around his chest and forced him back down towards her. He managed to playfully nibble the tip of her nose before she ripped the mesh from off his back. The locks of blonde dangled from his face like a shawl, tickling her own as he planted another kiss on her, shifting his body in a clumsy fashion so that he lay besides her.

For a moment they just lay there, drinking in the looks they were giving each other. Hinata was lost in his eyes. She was always lost in his eyes. There was something about the crystal-blue that made her shiver. In a way they looked even more powerful than his hermit-mode, but you could also see the kindness, and the loyalty, and the lust.

Hinata was so transfixed that she'd almost neglected the gentle touch of his fingers traversing her side. The mesh material made her skin tingle as his fingertips brushed the hidden flesh beneath. As she felt them slide beneath the waist-line of her trousers, her meek protests were stopped by a fierce kiss. A dainty hand clamped down on the back of Naruto's head, tugging at his locks as she lost herself in the breathless passion. When she felt the fingers slowly pressing on her inner thigh, the Hyuga placated without a murmur.

The mesh didn't end at her waist – continuing down her firm legs to about mid-thigh length – as if transforming into a pair of shorts. She braced, expecting the touch. But he teased, running his fingers over the wet material between her smooth thighs for a moment, before trailing down her inner-thigh.

His touch was so delicate, despite his overworked hands. And he knew Hinata inside and out. He knew exactly what buttons to press. Each touch felt like a precious kiss on her flesh, and each movement made her desire grow significantly. A part of her wanted to drag her hand away from his mane and stop the torment, but then she would lose her advantage in the battle against his luscious lips. As the wandering fingers inclined once again, Hyuga Hinata's flesh began to tingle.

The kiss lingered, his lips catching her lower, sucking gently before finally breaking. She was breathless, and he was grinning.

"You lied before," he smirked as he found the overhang of material, parting the wet mesh with ease, "you're not wearing any underwear."

Her mouth opened in a poor attempt to answer, but instead she could only bite her lip. The cloudy Byakugan eyes shot open as she felt a pair of fingers slide inside her. His face was hidden behind a playful smirk as he watched her breaths shorten at the action. At the angle the blonde lay, every time his fingers edged inside the helpless Hyuga his palm pressed against the mesh still protecting her clit. The friction of the wet material against it made her jolt whilst the quickening thrusts made the moans escape from her clenched teeth.

There was a limit to how much Hinata could take and that had long since passed. Once again, her hand grasped onto his long locks, dragging his mischievous face towards hers as she kissed him once again. The ANBU Captain tried to back away but this time she stopped him, holding his head firmly in place as she kept kissing him. It had taken a while, but she was beginning to regain control, only for it to be snatched away from her again when she felt his strokes quicken. Each motion was firmer, travelling deeper, and all she could do was gasp.

She moaned as her back sank into the mattress, defeated. "Fuck," the word lingered as her hand released the unkempt mane of golden strands, dropping helplessly onto the bed.

Again, her teeth sank into her lip as she tried desperately to stop a prolonged moan from escaping. It was coming and she could feel it, so too could Naruto as her thighs began to tighten. The sheets were being pulled from underneath his resting arm as her slender fingers gripped fiercely onto the material. The mesh across her bound breasts was rising and falling, keeping in time with the thrusts of his fingers as it all became too much for her...as she screamed.

Hyuga Hinata sank into the bed as the sodden fingers ground to a halt, his palm resting on the sopping fabric. Naruto leant on his arm, watching intently as the woman tried to even her breathing. It had been at least a month since they'd had enough time to do more than kiss, and it showed. It took a good minute, but Hinata's breathing finally fell into place as she opened those hypnotic eyes and glanced over to her torturer. She began to speak when she was cut off by his fingers once more, slowly massaging her hardened clit.

"Y-you bastard," she squirmed in contempt whilst sighing in delight.

He leaned in, leaving a trail of kisses from her shoulder up to her ear lobe. "I thought I told you that I was gunna get you back for earlier." He whispered. The words tickled, but all she could think about were his hands.

The teen gripped his arm, ripping the appendage away from her trousers before fiercely holding it to the bed, flipping the blonde onto his back in one swift movement. The torture device glistened in the light, slick with juices. She'd make him pay for that.

"I'm amazed you've got the strength to do that, _hime_." Naruto smirked as the woman held him down. "But don't you dare think I'm gunna let you tease me." Playfully he snarled.

Then the woman did something he'd never have expected, she let go and slid off the bed. Like a lost puppy Naruto reached out to her, but her back had already turned away. She sauntered towards the door. It was hypnotic that way she walked. It always was. Her hips swayed in a way that made Naruto want to scream. Before she reached the door, she stopped. Slowly, her hands traversed down her body, starting at her neck and ending at her waist. In one swift motion she bent over, sliding her trousers down to her ankles.

There was an instant where Naruto couldn't look away from her rear. It was only for a moment, but she was just a pair of perfect milky-skinned legs and a curvaceous ass covered in mesh. The wet between her thighs glistened in the light. As she straightened up and turned the blonde tried his hardest to close his jaw, but he was a second too slow.

She smirked.

Naruto gulped as she stalked towards the bed, clad only in mesh from neck to mid-thigh. It was skin tight, and even with the strapping over her breasts it was a sight to behold.

"What did I tell you about looking at me that way, _Taichou_?" The same sickly sweet voice as ever, yet somehow more threatening without the mask. By now she'd reached the foot of the bed, stood directly in front of Naruto's unmoving legs.

"Not to," the Captain replied with a glint in his eye as she leant over the bed, surprised when she gripped onto the waist line of his trousers. As she removed them, she made sure to pull down the undergarments with them. It proved a more difficult task than expected as the material snagged on the unmistakable bulge. Unflinching, the resolute Hyuga slid a dainty hand beneath the material, gripping the throbbing appendage with her slender fingers and pulling it out from the trousers. Letting go proved difficult – especially when she noticed the tip was wet – but she was struggling to remove the trousers with only one hand.

Finally, the restraints had gone. Given the situation it was no laughing matter, but there was a part of her that couldn't help it. The guy next in line to be Hokage was completely naked in front of her. All he had was his ANBU tattoos.

"What's so funny?" The male asked self-consciously as he lay there, basking in her beauty with nothing to hide his approval. He contemplated placing his hands over his manhood, but the instant he made a move the Hyuga shook her head.

Without warning she leapt, straddling his waist whilst pressing her palms into the chiselled torso for the first time. There was nothing she enjoyed more to look at, and it showed as she ran her fingernails over his torso hard enough to leave shallow marks in the tanned flesh.

Taking the appendage by the hand, she guided him in, rubbing the tip over her wet folds to which she could only grin at the sound of Naruto's gruff moan. Then she sat down, hard.

"Oh, Kami," Naruto moaned as her ass pressed into his thighs. By no means was Naruto the biggest in the army showers, but he wasn't the smallest either. And she just...took him whole in one motion. Leaning over the hapless shinobi on her knees and elbows she lingered, staring intently into his wanting eyes as loose strands of hair fell from her shoulders. Belatedly, the commanding Hyuga planted a swift kiss on his lips, before trailing across his cheek to his ear.

"W-what w-would you l-like me to do now, _Naruto-kun?_" In that second, her whole demeanour shifted. The words escaped her lips, and then she returned to her kneeling position – rigid as she straddled his waist as if she didn't even know – with her arms crossed self-consciously across her already covered breasts. There was a clear blush that hadn't been there before. And she used a suffix with his name for the first time in years.

For a moment Naruto thought that she'd relapsed into her twelve year old self, but the second he began to question, she rose off him with a sultry smirk and slammed back down again. "I-is this okay, _N-Naruto-kun_?" Repeating the movement a third time.

"You," He managed as she rose again, "What are you up to?" His breaths were ragged. It surprised him but the 'shy-girl' act was kind of working. So too was the fact she'd left on her under-armour. They hadn't done it like this in months, but Naruto really didn't care. The only thought in his mind was to grip her hips as firmly as she could and try and take back some control...

"Yo, boss. Antlers is back with – Woah, Kami!" The Kage-Bunshin walked in without knocking whilst reading a book. As it looked up, it caught the show in its entirety. "Damn it, you're doing _this _and you've got us doing research? You absolute asshole!" Faux-Naruto bemoaned as he began to kick up enough fuss that a couple of the other clones came into the hallway.

The congregation began to make more of a commotion whilst Naruto instinctively tried to pull the sheets to cover their antics. Hinata on the other hand didn't even flinch.

"What the hell guys. Have you never heard of knocking? Get the hell out of here before I kick your asses." If Naruto had anything to throw at them then he gladly would have done.

"Screw that, I'm not doing this poxy crap whilst you have fun." The lead clone argued, tossing the book on the floor as he eyed the Hyuga straddled across their maker's waist.

"Well, I can think of a few things they can do." Hinata teased, to which a couple of the clone's jaws dropped. Playfully, the Fukitaichou's arms drew into the air as she arched her back, rising slowly before lowering again. One clone collapsed as another's eyes almost popped out of its skull.

"Maybe next time," the blonde Captain sighed as he crossed his fingers, dispelling the technique as two books dropped to the floor with a thud. "Assholes," He complained whilst tapping his lovers' thigh. Reservedly, she moved, allowing his soaking member to escape her grasp as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

Naruto rose with legs like jelly as his naked form edged towards the door. Even the Uzumaki's back was covered in toned muscle – well, the part that wasn't covered by his mane. It was a sight to behold, and it only made the Hyuga want him more as he turned back, semi-erect penis in tow.

"Where do you think you're going?" She purred on all fours. It made the blondes sweating flesh scream, and his falling manhood rise anew.

Regrettably, he turned away. "To talk to the aliens," mumbling as he reached the open door into the hallway. "We can pick this up later."

"Naruto?"

"Hm," he murmured, lost in his own thoughts as he continued.

"Pants," The former clan Heir quipped as she palmed her forehead, watching as his nude body ground to a halt, before darting back into the bedroom and slamming the door shut.

* * *

"...And the machine that Sakura used to check our bodies for a chakra system?" There was an air of wonder in the question that guided itself up the stairwell. It was most certainly a woman's voice, so Naruto could only imagine it was the blonde known as 'Carter'. She certainly had a greater interest in possible technologies than the others.

"Yeah, Fraiser would kill to get her hands on something like that." The gruff voice of her commanding officer agreed with a sigh. "How about that weird green glow that came out of her hands when she healed T? It looked a hell of a lot like a Goa'uld healing device."

"Indeed, the sensation was somewhat similar also."

"D'you know that you say 'indeed' quite a lot?" Naruto laughed as he reached the foot of the stairs. He'd managed to put on his combat trousers but not much else as he came into view, naked from the waist up, beads of sweat dangling from his unkempt mane. There was a hint of breathlessness as he spoke.

Amused at the comment, Daniel turned towards the stairwell only to cough at the sight of the male before him. Carter did something similar, though her smile was somewhat stunted by viewing his semi-naked form. Teal'c raised an eyebrow as the shinobi made his way across the room towards the living area as O'Neill looked unashamedly at the Captain.

"I had not noticed," the Jaffa queried with his thoughts seemingly more on his use of the word rather than the torso before him.

"Nice scar," O'Neill had no such reservations of discussing the image before him as Naruto got within a few feet of the prying eyes of SG-1. "War wound?"

The scar was indeed 'nice' in one respect, at least for a nasty looking thing. The right pectoral of the blonde shinobi was somewhat deformed compared to the left. As expected of a person who was a soldier by vocation, his body was lean, full of knotted muscle that proved his dedication to his job. His pectoral muscles were as prominent as his abdominals and deltoids, but a darkened star of flesh that spun from just above his nipple, across much of his torso and right shoulder was a sight to behold.

"This old thing?" He noted as he rubbed his breast. "I got this about three years before the War started." He batted away the uneasy question whilst taking a seat inside the open-planned living area.

"I thought you said you'd been fighting this war for almost five years and that you were twenty now..." Daniel Jackson trailed off as he contemplated the repercussions.

"Woah, you got that thing when you were _twelve_?" O'Neill's voice dropped to something akin to anger.

"Well, yeah. We're active in the forces at whatever age we graduate from the academy. For me it was twelve. My teacher was an accomplished assassin at six." Naruto stated matter-of-factly as he brushed a glob of red on one of the many tattoos across his arms. In a puff of smoke a clean white cloak appeared.

If O'Neill wasn't so angry he would've noted how cool that was. But, he was furious. They'd stumbled upon many horrible things in their travels, but this...this was one of the worst. Child soldiers weren't uncommon on Earth, especially in war torn areas of Africa and the Middle-East, but to find an entire planet that actively participated in warfare from childhood made him sick.

"Something wrong?" The Sixth Division Captain asked as he threw the loose cloak over his shoulders, almost completely covering him.

O'Neill had that tortured look he got, especially when Skaara was involved. In fact, any time kids became a part of a mission. Daniel noticed it more so than the others, making sure to butt in before the Colonel could answer.

"So, did you manage to gather anything from that research whilst we were having our... medicals?" The last word lingered in Daniel's throat. To be perfectly honest it was no different from what Dr. Fraiser would do to other-worldly humans they brought back from the gate. But there was just something incredibly unnerving about the abilities that the pink-haired woman used.

Grinning, Naruto looked over to the floppy-haired alien. "I managed to get through about a year's worth of mission reports. There were some pretty interesting things in there – mind blowing things actually."

"How'd you manage to get through that much research in an hour?" Carter questioned wondrously. Not only could these people travel faster than an eye could track, they could launch the elements from their fists, and they could read at super-human speed.

"I have my ways," He replied mysteriously, crossing his fingers idly. Wordlessly, a plume of smoke erupted behind Naruto, from which a second Naruto _poofed_ into existence. The thing threw a flashy grin before disappearing almost as suddenly as it had arrived.

"Nice," the aging Colonel muttered as his transfixed eyes blinked furiously as if trying to remove something from them. Managing to drag his gaze from the bare spot in the room, O'Neill pried, "So, anything in there about a second gate perhaps?"

The cloaked solider shook his head dejectedly. Still, he'd barely scaled through the first scroll of mission logs.

"Actually, yes – at least I think I did." From the foot of stairs came a sweet voice.

Gliding into view appeared the woman SG-1 had come to know as 'Hyuga Hinata'. With the loss of her armour, she looked even more desirable than before. Like her commanding officer, she wore the lower half of her combats still, but above the waist she wore a tightly-fitted shirt, stressing the physique she'd worked so hard to achieve. "There's a report of an exploration unit returning to our planet, but ending up in a completely different place. They went back through the gate to the original planet, redialled and ended up back in Uzu."

"Was there any description of the other planet?" Dr. Jackson queried.

"See for yourself," the reply was swift, throwing the small book across the space between the oblong of seats.

It took a while, but the eminence of the Japanese dialect finally jigged his latent memories, finding enough in the recesses of his mind to read through the large passage that had been thrown at him.

"Hm, a small island with tall thin trees and sandy beaches," Daniel started...

"Sounds familiar," O'Neill finished. "Don't suppose they happen to know where it is."

Before Daniel continued to read through the whole thing at a painstakingly slow pace, Hinata took over once again. "It seems that the unit were missing for days, but their minds thought it was only minutes. Collectively, the unit had no recollection of anything that happened. They chalked it off as a gate malfunction and didn't appear to follow it up."

All four faces of the Stargate Command Unit looked up in unison. That sounded eerily familiar to the time that...cautious glances passed before the Colonel shook his head in disbelief that there was another one of those aquatic aliens that had the ability to alter memories. Naruto and Hinata seemed more interested in each other to notice their looks, but Shikamaru's laboured body – sunk into the corner of the sofa like a chameleon – caught the exchange.

Belatedly, the greying man sighed. "Great, so we're back to storming the other gate and finding the DHD."

Naruto laughed, much louder than he intended. "You wouldn't get within a mile of the shore."

"Um, not necessarily," Jack cut in, "We're scheduled to dial back to Earth in a couple of hours. When we don't, our commanding officer will get in touch. We could order a strike force to retake the island, or at the very least distract them long enough to let us get onto the island. We back up our other units, finish the army off, and wham, back in time for my favourite TV show." Smiling at his cockamamie plan, Jack O'Neill sank back into his seat with a sense of ease. Yep, this was definitely a 'wing-it' kind of plan. It worked with the Jaffa armies all the time.

The offer was one that Naruto contemplated...for about three seconds. Alpha Squadron had seen how effective their weapons were, and in most situations, it was possible that the shinobi holding the island would have no idea what the ring was. Though, it was also entirely plausible that there would be a unit guarding it.

"It wouldn't work," Shikamaru offered. "They've seen how your weapon works now, so they will be wary enough to attack you from long range. Plus, it would only be effective on humans and the white-clones."

"Well, yeah...what else is there?" Jack asked confusedly.

"An un-dead army."

The answer seemed to come from all three shinobi around the lounge, to which Colonel O'Neill could only laugh. "You mean 'resurrected' right, you know, with a sarcophagus?" Confused faces almost seemed to answer him.

"No, I mean bonding dead shinobi's souls to a living body in order to make an immortal soldier. I have no idea what a 'sarcophagus' is." Naruto answered grimly. It was such a disgusting technique, and it was hard to accept that one of the five Hokage was actually its inventor. What disgusted him more was that he actually knew how to do it himself. "I've seen one of them completely destroyed in an explosion, with nothing remaining of their body. Then, it regenerates from nothingness. It's a formidable technique with almost no way to counter."

If Naruto actually had anything to drink, he'd gladly be downing it. Every time he spoke about the intricacies of this technique it made him queasy. He lived in a horrible world, one that death would be as close to peace as many would find. Yet, because of this grotesque sacrificial monstrosity, not even the dead could rest.

"It's a seal, like the one allowing us to speak? It's some form of genetic coding that allows for one body to become another." Carter surmised.

"In a way," Naruto sighed regretfully. "Whereas the seal I used on you could be beneficial for language and communications, the Edo Tensei benefits _no one_."

Silently they sat, contemplating how to get around their predicament, until Shikamaru chipped in... "I've got a plan."

* * *

Dawn broke sharply, but the dense fog that lay across the small sea between the shores kept it out. Visibility was nil. From the tops of the defensive wall all that could be seen was an impenetrable cloud of white, seemingly traversing from the surface water well into the skyline. Although naturally occurring in this area, this was the furthest from natural that you could get.

"This is never going to work," O'Neill objected as he sat with his hands firmly gripped around the wooden oar cutting through the water.

The boat was cramped, barely large enough to fit the five people it housed. O'Neill and Teal'c oared the fore pew as Carter and Daniel sat barely a knee in front of them. Rowing in itself wasn't too difficult, but the flak jackets affected mobility, especially in tight quarters.

"You don't know what he's capable of." The feminine voice was muffled by her porcelain mask. It was weird to imagine, but beneath the facade she was a completely different person, scary almost. She sat facing inwards at the aft of the boat overlooking SG-1, glancing through the fog with her indomitable visual prowess. Her arms drooped overboard, fingertips brushing over the rippled surface. It was slight, but Carter and Daniel could see the way the water swirled around her hands as if she was manipulating the whole sea.

"Holding off two-thousand people is one thing, but defeating them...on his own? I can't believe that." The male continued, his whispered complaints coming in unison with his strokes. "Are you even sure we're rowing in the right direction?"

"Certain," her sharp tone cut into his reservations of her abilities. "And don't you worry about Zero. The only reason he didn't destroy them before was because we were there. This kind of tactic is perfect for him."

Sighing, Jack put the complaint to bed, concentrating on the task at hand. It was pointless to argue with her. He'd wished that Naruto had made a bigger boat, and a whole legion of those copies to do the rowing. Fishing was the only thing boats were good for. God, even one of those hellish vortex things wouldn't go amiss right about now.

"You can stop rowing now, the shore is within range. The tide will take us in." Frosty was the best way to describe her attitude. Frosty with a hint of rage.

Yet, it was understandable. After somehow establishing radio contact with the SGC twenty minutes after the standard dial-in time, General Hammond was hastily brought up to speed with the situation. Scepticism was usually reserved for the Colonel only, but even the aging Stargate Commander couldn't quite grasp O'Neill's use of the term 'super-human ninja's'. Of course, a platoon of marines was in the gate room ready to disembark. Thankfully, the recovery mission was put on hold. Given the time to think about the situation, Jack knew such an action would only end up getting good men killed. Teal'c waded in, asking for Master Bra'tac to be informed of the situation. It was possible that he could acquire a ship to pick them up.

Ultimately, the decision for action was taken out of the hands of the explorers when a masked soldier appeared in the living quarters of Alpha Squadron – out of thin air Jack would enthusiastically add to his upcoming mission report. Naruto's solo retrieval mission had been granted...along with an additional task.

From leaving the earlier debriefing, the Hokage had spent countless hours in video conference with the three remaining Kage. To say that they were outraged was an understatement. How something as life changing as travel to different worlds had been kept under wraps for so long almost broke apart the alliance there and then. Eventually Ay and Ohnoki were brought around, with the assistance of the ever sage-like Gaara. Their first action on the matter was to choose Naruto to act as intermediary between the Shinobi alliance and the aliens known as 'SG-1'. That meant that the Sixth Division Captain would travel to Earth along with them in order to broker an alliance.

_That _was why Hyuga Hinata was frosty. Not only had he been given permission to take his solo mission, Naruto had been chosen for such an important and dangerous task. Immediately the Vice-Captain had complained – furiously so – at the thought of him leaving Konoha. Not only for his own safety travelling to an unknown place with a bunch of strangers, but for the security of the Shinobi world. The regal teen didn't mince her words; she branded Naruto as the strongest soldier in the entire army, one that could tip the balance between victory and defeat. O'Neill held his reservations at such a statement, but in the short time he'd known the guy, he wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the best.

He would go alone, and command of his unit would defer to Hinata herself until his return. Reservedly, she agreed. But the way he grasped the woman transcended more than simple comradery. No, Jack knew that look. He'd given his ex-wife the same thing every time he'd been given some god-awful detail in Rwanda or Siberia where he may not come back from. It was a hard thing to look at, but it was also weird to think two people in the same unit could have such a relationship. Clearly they didn't have the same protocols that they did on Earth...

"Woah, what the hell is _that_?" O'Neill strained a scream, trying to remain as quietly shocked as possible.

Hyuga Hinata appeared to be on fire. A golden-red cloak of tumultuous flames began to spiral around her, making a humanoid shield around her body. Two antenna-like protrusions sprouted from the helm of the corporeal armour, twitching as if listening to the voice of the world.

"Good, he's beginning." The Fukitaichou uttered with vigour.

Almost five years on from the first days of the Fourth Shinobi War and Kurama's chakra cloak was still in effect. Outright exhilaration was the first thing Hinata noticed. It was always the same. There was an instant where you could _feel _your power increase tenfold. She felt limitless, and the extension of power gave her the opportunity to use techniques that were beyond her capabilities otherwise.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu," she muttered as her fingers flew through a pattern of signs. Four blank faces stared up at her as nothing happened, until they felt the boat rock upon the calm sea. Water splashed quickly all around them. There was a moment where they were completely oblivious, until Carter glanced overboard, noticing that they were floating some six-feet above the water surface.

That was when they heard it; a feral roar, deafening as much as it was frightening. The sound carried, but from the general direction they could only assume it came from the opposite shore on towards the north of Uzushiogakure.

"What the hell was that?" Daniel asked hurried, watching on as the shore came into view at a startling rate. Ever since the red cloak appeared on the shinobi's body, the mist had slowly begun to break up along with their cover.

"Naruto," that was all she said, vaulting backwards over the edge of the boat, landing so that she could instantly gain her stride over the water. In only a couple of seconds she was already well ahead of the boat, leaping with each step towards the broken city.

Jack tracked movement from the east, quickly switching to the red-dot sight on his P-90 as a trio of white creatures attempted to rush the advancing woman. Instinctively the male flicked the safety on his firearm, pressing his fingertip gently against the trigger before he found himself unable to move.

There was a moment where the three enemies were within metres of the lithe female, and then...they weren't. All the woman did was cock a fist before casually flailing it out at them with so much force that they _flew_ – it must've been well above one-hundred metres down the coast. Two bounced awkwardly off the water in unison, rebounding off the calm surface before sinking beneath the supple liquid as the other all but disintegrated upon impact against a dislodged piece of stone.

Solid ground was a welcome sight. As the boat dropped, they were finally able to grasp how they'd manage to float so freely above the water. No fewer than six copies of the white-eyed ninja stood around them, somewhat lacking the cloak of oozing red that their real version carried.

Slowly they began to walk through the destruction, surrounded by their cagey entourage. SG-1 held their weapons aloft, as too did the identical copies. Upon their arrival, they hadn't really managed to take in the sights, and they noted quickly that there wasn't much to behold. Mountains of rubble were all that could be seen. None of the pathways were free from ruin, often making it difficult to navigate without potentially falling flat on their faces. Still, they could see the lone building in the distance that still stood. They knew that was their objective.

The roars were louder now, and more frequent. What could be mistaken for mini-earthquakes went off every few seconds. It was difficult to come to any real form of understanding as to how that could possibly be Naruto. Unless of course, he had a pet dinosaur that he rode into battle on, but that would be preposterous.

That was until they actually saw it.

"Oh boy, General Hammond is gunna think I'm not taking my duties seriously again when I hand in my mission report," Dumbfounded, the Colonel watched on as a golden-orange blur danced on the horizon.

"When she said 'Naruto', do you think she meant that Naruto is controlling that thing, or that _is _Naruto?" Daniel's question hung in the balance as the Colonel reached into his pack, pulling a pair of binoculars out as he slowly climbed up an unstable pile of rubble.

From his vantage point it was pretty easy to make out the multitude of swaying tails that regularly dropped beneath the surface, kicking up dust and debris as shrill screams fell beneath the noise of the destruction. Certain of what he could see, the fox-like beast adorned the same black markings that Naruto had on his back when he grew their headquarters. Speaking of the ANBU Captain, he was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm leaning towards the latter," Colonel O'Neill found a sturdy path down from the summit of the rubble hill, landing awkwardly as he jumped the last couple of feet. They moved in formation at a much faster pace. Their entourage of copies had fanned out, allowing him to get closer to Carter. "As soon as we get a connection, send a message through to Hammond to pack the gate room with marines."

Reacting to the suspicious whispers, Captain Carter glanced over to her leader before nodding silently in reply. These people were becoming more dangerous by the minute. Still, it would be an issue if the shinobi took the heightened defences of the SGC as an act of aggression.

The primal screams were aiding their journey through the maze of debris. Finally, they'd reached the entrance to the courtyard – a gaping hole in the centre of the building. Sprinting through the dilapidated carcass of the three story building, the seasoned explorers stepped out into hell.

Teal'c had to step ahead of the unit, flicking the butt of his staff to deflect a kunai as the others ducked behind cover. Their flanking support had already left them, jumping into the fray along with their original. Hyuga Hinata crouched in the centre of the courtyard, palms held aloft in the direction of her combatants as the oozing armour sizzled around her.

"I guess they didn't all take the bait," Daniel checked as he rustled around his trouser pockets, pulling two spare ammo clips and holding them in his free hand.

Dead and dying were splayed across the confines of the small battlefield. Three of her copies had taken formation around her as the other three took on enemies at the extremities. She inclined her head, flicking her wrist as if she knew exactly where SG-1 was hiding. Five of those white-clones stood in front of her, as another three human-looking soldiers flanked her on either side.

It all happened so fast.

Two of her copies shot out at the flanking shinobi. They were outnumbered, but once they started moving, they were completely unstoppable. It was difficult to track, but somehow Teal'c and O'Neill managed to catch the number of blows...at least, they did for a little while. Both appeared to lose count at around sixteen. An imaginary circle had been drawn around either copy, and anything that fell inside it wouldn't be safe. What was more fascinating was that when the clones had finished, they'd managed to get all eleven enemies in one place, well clear of Hinata.

"Light 'em up," ordered the Colonel, taking a few seconds to kneel behind cover. His sub-machinegun kicked into his shoulder as his crooked fingers flicked the trigger.

Carter matched his action, unleashing a full clip into the enemy soldiers. Teal'c stood between them, staff held at his waist as he fired a volley of yellow bolts of energy in their direction, decimating everything that stood in their wake.

Nothing remained in their path of carnage as Carter and O'Neill simultaneously ejected their spent clips as Daniel handed them the spares. In two-by-two formation SG-1 spilled out into the courtyard, heading for Hinata. The white-eyed shinobi was yet to drop her stance, eyeing the dead carefully as they approached.

"Your weapons are a lot faster than a kunai. I doubt any of them had time to react." Hyuga Hinata eyed their weapons apprehensively. They were definitely something worth fearing.

"Well, they're yours if we can strike up an alliance," The Colonel offered as he trained the scope towards the north-east. The far building had made it impossible to see the other battlefield, though if the noise was anything to go by Naruto was still fighting. "Not that you'd need a gun with that fighting style of yours. Seriously, how many times did you h –"

"Down!" Hinata screamed as a volley of chakra-imbued shuriken hurtled towards them.

Teal'c and Daniel managed to duck fast enough as Carter threw herself out of the way. O'Neill wasn't so lucky.

"Son of a bitch!" The wounded soldier screamed as he fell to the jagged surface. He couldn't feel anything in his right arm. He had to look just to make sure, but it was still attached. Yet, there was blood gushing from the wound that had cut cleanly through his flak-vest, combats, and clavicle.

"Sir," Carter was at his side placing pressure on the wound with some torn cloth as Daniel knelt by his side, watching as the hulking beast of a man headed towards them. Teal'c fired a round straight through his chest. The burning flesh didn't stop the shinobi as his movement carried on.

It took a chakra-infused ball of compressed air to stop him – taking his head clean off his shoulder – as his limp body dropped to the floor.

"How is he?" Hinata asked quietly as her teeth ground together at the sight of the Edo Tensei regenerating.

"It looks pretty bad," Daniel replied uneasily as he looked over his stricken commander, bordering on unconsciousness.

"Naruto, we're in the courtyard with an Edo. O'Neill's sustained a grievous injury. Over." Hinata flicked the sensor beneath the mesh material around her neck.

No reply. Static was all she received as she took up a stance above the body, forcing another fist of compressed chakra through its sternum. It was only when she noticed the darkness that she sighed in relief. All that could be seen above the northern building was a ball of darkness large enough to blot out the sun.

"Hold on to something," the Sixth Division Fukitaichou yelled above the whistling wind.

Heaven and earth shook as the Bijuu bomb imploded – before expanding rapidly – with the force of a nuclear warhead. The winds were strong enough to pick up loose boulders, even the dead bodies across the courtyard. The black ball was growing closer by the second, but at the same time each of them knew it wouldn't reach – even when the northern building crumbled before their eyes.

"Just in time to see my handiwork," A golden hue out of the corner of their eyes directed them to the blazing cloak stood beside Hyuga Hinata. Whilst watching the black expanse, his hands rifled through seals as he forced his fist into the regenerating chest of the Edo Tensei. The conscious members of SG-1 watched on as Colonel O'Neill's assailant disappeared in a black swirl of flames.

"Naruto, please hurry. I don't know how long I can stop this bleeding." Carter was fraught with despair, bordering on tears as she tried desperately to slow the blood loss.

Glancing over to the ailing man, he quickly forced as much chakra as he could into his fist. To any onlookers it would appear as though Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto had punched an unconscious man in the back, but before Captain Carter could say anything her hands began to burn.

"I'd let go of him if I were you," he stated as he grabbed Daniel by the scruff of the neck. "Come on." Without warning they disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Wh-what did he just do?" The blonde woman's lower lip quivered as she attempted to speak.

"Saved his life," Hinata replied quietly as she picked the Colonel's weapon up from the cracked surface. She studied it briefly, contemplating using it before she passed the clunky metallic object to the kneeling woman. Wordlessly she ushered two of her clones to carefully lift up the unconscious male as they walked in unison towards the gate.

It only took a minute for the unmistakable sound of chevrons locking on the colossal ring. _Two_, Carter almost began to count in her head. _Three_, as the ground began to shake all around them. This had nothing to do with the gate, that much she was certain. _Four_. Something was coming, not only could they feel it, they could see it. On the far side of the square a humanoid blue haze was gaining on their position at a rapid rate. _Five_. The thing was massive, at least ten feet tall. It looked grotesque, like bare ribs surrounding a person. As the sixth chevron locked, it was almost upon them.

"Naruto! Why didn't you say Madara was here?!" Furiously the Fukitaichou screamed down her headset as she ripped one of the P-90's out of Sam's grasp.

Dozens of shinobi – presumably Edo Tensei – were bearing down behind the enemy commander. Carter began to loosen a few bursts from the weapon as Hinata repeated. The weapon had a kick that she wasn't expecting, firing a string of bullets high into the sky as her aim fell all over the place.

"Hold it into your shoulder firmly and squeeze the trigger gently. Short bursts only," Carter instructed as finally, the seventh chevron locked in place.

Even though Hinata looked as though she was focusing solely on the onrushing shinobi, she saw the beauty that was the eruption of power coming from the centre of the ancient device through her Kekkei Genkai. A vibrant jet seemed to escape its surface only for it to stabilise and shimmer like a sea inside the confines of the ring. However, the beauty was soon lost as she squeezed the trigger once again.

The sound was deafening, even more so when she was the one holding the weapon. Unsurprisingly, the bullets made no impact on the humanoid Susanoo, but it proved markedly more effective on those behind. Hinata had been correct in her earlier assumptions, the bullets were too fast for them to react to, and they did indeed pack a mighty punch. Despite her lagging aim, she managed to take down two Edo's, as Carter and Teal'c focused on the enormous Kekkei Genkai armour.

He was too close now as Hinata threw the weapon at the blonde woman and took to what she knew best. If she was lucky she could hold out for ten – maybe fifteen – seconds against the most feared shinobi in all creation. Susanoo's sword sliced towards her, cutting through the top layers of her Kaiten. She saw the briefest opening as his sword raised again for a second strike – cutting her rotation and firing two Kyubi-infused compressed canons of air directly at him.

"Pitiful Hyuga techniques are nothing to an Uchiha," the Edo Tensei taunted as he absorbed the ninjutsu with one outstretched fist, only to be struck in the head by a chakra enhanced kunai from within his blind spot.

Carter was muttering into her headset as she and Daniel had taken over as the Colonel's carriers. Hinata's clones had vanished the moment she struck up combat with Madara. "Come on!" Daniel shouted to grab their attention as they ambled into the blue liquid, disappearing completely.

"Urgent message to command. Relay to Hokage. Mission is a success, however Madara is on Uzu. Unable to hold the gate. Hinata incapable of returning to the wall. Alpha Squadron command deferred to Shikamaru. Over." Naruto hurriedly relayed his message through his communications device, waiting long enough to here the '_understood_' signal from command.

Teal'c fired a few more balls of energy from his staff weapon as he motioned towards the gate. Hinata's chakra cloak was gone and she was nearing her limit. Belatedly she followed the hulking Jaffa as Naruto cooked up one final attack.

"Eat this," Naruto smirked as he practically rammed a Rasen-Shuriken down the throat of the regenerating Uchiha. The blast was enough to force the masked shinobi backwards, but that didn't really matter as he threw himself into the blue.

It was a weird sensation. One second he could feel the blast wave behind him, the next all he could hear was this weird whirring noise. It was barely a second but he felt like he was swimming in darkness...and then he landed flat on his mask on some girded metal.

"Close the Iris," a voice boomed from all around him.

Something was happening behind his prone body, but he was too preoccupied to look. The first sight he was graced with momentarily panicked him. There were dozens, perhaps as many as thirty men and women all with their weapons trained on him. These 'guns' were bigger than the one that O'Neill and the others had used, and they were even crouching behind these small slotted blocks which he could only assume was their piss poor attempt at a shield.

Their looks were apprehensive, hands twitching as if ready to fire upon the order. Then he remembered. Closing his eyes, the neo-Sannin managed to calm his self to the point that the golden-red hue that surrounded his body dissipated into nothingness. Once again he looked just like a regular ANBU Captain, draped in a white cloak from head-to-toe with a mask to cover his facial features...and eyes no longer emblazoned in orange.

"Lower your weapons, unless you want to piss off our newest allies." Daniel Jackson ordered with little success from somewhere behind the sea of green combats. SG-1 was nowhere to be seen, neither was Hinata.

As he raised the bleach-white mask, he saw their grips loosen and their furrowed brows ease up as they saw his face – markedly human with no signs of being a Jaffa. Another noise shook his thoughts as what sounded like a loss of power rung out through the small room. Yet, their weapons still trailed on him as his golden mane twisted to look at the gate behind him. Gone was the blue sea, only to be replaced by a dangerous looking metal shield.

As he turned, the fatigued figure of Hyuga Hinata skulked towards him. Her head and arms were drooping as she managed to force her way through the lines of soldiers. She was within a couple of metres of him as she began to fall, but her Captain caught her long before she hit the deck.

"You did good, _Hime_." He smiled down at her as his firm hands slowly removed the porcelain hiding her face.

"Arigatou," she whispered as her eye-lids succumbed to the exhaustion her body was feeling.

"Stand down," the same oppressive voice rung out from all directions, only this time the soldiers did so.

Sighing with relief the soldiers cocked their weapons and stood at ease, making way for a group of individuals who looked suspiciously like Konoha's medic-Nins. Teal'c lingered at the rear of the group. All of them seemed to speak at once in the language that Naruto couldn't understand without his language seal. He could make out their words, but without the seal being implanted in them he had no way of replying.

"Do you require assistance?" The eyebrows seemed to speak more than the mouth did with this guy.

"Just a bed to help her rest, that's all. Thanks, Teal'c." Naruto replied to the amazement of the medics whom just stared on in ignorant bliss. The Jaffa inclined his head and pointed towards the door to the right of the bland room.

They walked in unison with three medics fluttering around them like flies, with their own personal entourage of four heavily-armed soldiers. The corridors all seemed the same; bland with ruts and corrugated iron seemingly everywhere. It was like a maze but fortunately they'd kindly painted a load of lines on the floor so that you could find your way. Uneasily the procession carried on until they found their way into Naruto's favourite place in the whole world, the med-bay.

Supposedly they'd just travelled to the other side of the galaxy, but the hospitals still looked drab, and lifeless, and horribly scary. Machinery hung all over the place, and most of them were bleeping as he passed by. Two of the beds were occupied; the first was difficult to see as they had curtains around them, but by the sounds from within they were severely injured. The other was the Colonel, lying unconscious on his gurney surrounded by Captain Carter, Daniel Jackson and a third individual, a woman in slightly different garb to the others.

"I take it you're Naruto?" The woman spoke with an angry tone, accusing him more than asking. "What have you done to the Colonel? I can't treat him like this. His wound is _bubbling_." She all but pointed to the shoulder that protruded from the sheets that covered the rest of his body. She was right, the deep cut was bubbling, oozing with blood-like fluid.

Gently, Naruto placed the woman in his arms onto the bed beside the Colonel, making sure that she was comfortable and covered up by the bedding before drawing his attention to the comatose male. He skulked around to the medic's side of the bed, making note to brush past the naked flesh of her forearm.

"If I hadn't done anything he would've died before we even got him through the gate. I forced chakra into his system in order to stop the bleeding and repair the severed artery. You shouldn't need to do anything to him aside from dress the wound once the process is complete."

"Chakra," the doctor muttered the word in disbelief, as the other Stargate personnel close enough to hear the exchange confusedly stood, wondering how Dr Fraiser could understand what he said.

"Trust me I know what I'm doing." He smiled as he patted the wearisome form of Samantha Carter on the shoulder, before looking towards Daniel. "So, um, I guess I should say – take me to your leader." Naruto laughed as the worry seemed to drop of the archaeologists face.

* * *

**Author Note: **As I said, the reason for this being 18,000+ words is because it's a way of saying thank you for the positive feedback. I didn't post in like three months so you get two chapters for the imaginary price of one.

I hope you enjoyed it, because I certainly liked writing it, well, mostly. The meeting scene with Tsunade drags and drags and drags, but there wasn't really much more I could cut out of it without hampering the character development or the unveiling of some things.

Reviews and PMs are always welcome, and if you have any queries don't be afraid to ask.

Ciao.


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